The Federal Government of Nigeria has unveiled a commercial agriculture financing initiative that will provide up to N2bn to each of 40 tertiary institutions to establish large-scale farms under the Renewed Hope Tertiary Agricultural and Entrepreneurship Programme.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, announced the plan during a meeting with heads of selected tertiary institutions and the management of the Bank of Agriculture to discuss its implementation.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday by the minister’s Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, the programme seeks to bring more than 500,000 hectares of underutilised land across tertiary institutions into commercial agricultural production, research and enterprise development.

Under the arrangement, participating universities, polytechnics and colleges of education will be expected to make approximately 1,000 hectares of land available for farming. Institutions with smaller landholdings may also qualify if they present viable business proposals.

Each participating institution will establish a limited liability company to work with the Bank of Agriculture, which will provide financing ranging from N1bn to N2bn for agricultural production and related inputs.

Alausa explained that the initiative would address the underutilisation of agricultural land in higher institutions by providing the necessary funding, machinery, technical expertise and institutional support to develop commercially viable farms.

He noted that previous interventions by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund had provided N1bn to some institutions and N2bn to others. Additionally, the Federal Ministry of Education had earmarked N20bn in its capital budget to support 20 tertiary institutions under the agricultural development initiative.

On agricultural mechanisation, the minister disclosed that participating institutions would each have access to 10 tractors at significantly reduced costs through the government’s agricultural mechanisation initiative.

The programme’s support package will also cover modern seedlings, farm implements, irrigation equipment, water pumps, fertilisers and technical expertise to improve agricultural productivity.

To address challenges associated with marketing and post-harvest losses, the government plans to establish arrangements with produce aggregators to purchase harvested crops. Measures will also be introduced to minimise losses after harvesting.

Beyond crop and livestock production, the initiative is expected to support processing activities and other agro-allied businesses, creating an agricultural value chain around participating institutions.

Alausa further disclosed that students, unemployed graduates, alumni, academic and non-academic staff, as well as members of host communities, would be encouraged to participate in commercial farming activities under the supervision of lecturers and agricultural experts.

He said the programme would give students practical agricultural experience, encourage entrepreneurship and allow participants to benefit from the financial returns generated by the farms.

The minister projected that the initiative could attract investments worth trillions of naira in the coming years, while transforming tertiary institutions into centres for agricultural innovation, commercial production and enterprise development.

The initiative comes against the backdrop of persistent food security challenges in Nigeria. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimated that 36.3 million people experienced acute food insecurity during the June-August 2026 lean season.

In its September 2026 country brief, the organisation also reported that Nigeria’s annual food inflation increased for the sixth consecutive month, reaching 20.3 per cent in July, compared with 8.9 per cent in January.

The FAO identified several factors contributing to pressures on agricultural production and food prices. These include increasing costs of agricultural inputs and transportation, insecurity affecting farming activities, conflict-related restrictions on access to farmland, high fertiliser prices and adverse weather conditions.

Nigeria’s agricultural sector also continues to contend with longstanding structural constraints, particularly inadequate access to modern farming equipment, insufficient financing, limited processing capacity and significant post-harvest losses.

Source: MSME Africa Online