The Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Nigeria, Amb. John Groffen, on Sunday restated his government’s commitment to supporting Nigeria in the development of her agriculture sector.
Groffen told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos said that what Nigeria currently needed was to prioritise its diversification to agriculture, especially with the global fall in the price of oil.
“For us, the agriculture sector should be Nigeria’s new oil and gas industry that Nigeria should focus on and develop.
“We believe that agriculture is the sector that Nigeria’s future really would depend on. So, Nigeria needs to urgently begin to move away from being a mono-culture economy.
“We are, therefore, currently looking at the development of Nigeria’s agriculture sector through private enterprise and cooperation,’’ he said.
The Envoy said that although Dutch companies had been very active in Nigeria’s fossil fuel, maritime, retail and agriculture sectors, Nigeria’s agriculture development would henceforth continue to receive much attention.
According to him, there are plenty of opportunities for partnerships between Nigeria and the Netherlands in developing Nigeria’s huge agriculture potential.
Groffen said that his Embassy was prepared to make more Dutch agriculture organisations know of the opportunities and challenges that currently existed in Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
“We are doing all we can to attract more Dutch agriculture companies to Nigeria through private enterprise cooperation.
“This means that these private enterprises have to make business plans for the potential that would be available to them in Nigeria.
“These companies would also want to know about the possible challenges in any country they would be investing in,” he added. (NAN)