Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, was the toast of delegates at the 24th World Economic Forum for Africa (WEFA), in Abuja, for his leadership in the transformation of the nation’s agriculture sector. At a media leadership forum held on the sidelines of WEFA, he spoke on the future of Nigeria’s agriculture and other issues. Our Abuja Bureau Chief, MADU ONUORAH, was there.
WHAT is the renewed focus on Nigeria’s agriculture sector all about?First, we
abandoned the agriculture sector because everybody was making cheap and easy money from oil. Yes, you can scoop oil, but nobody eats or drinks oil. You need agriculture to be able to feed the nation. This trajectory that we were spending so much money importing foods that we ordinarily should be producing in Nigeria didn’t make any sense, because Nigeria doesn’t have any business importing most of the food items. We have the land, the water, cheap labour and the market. Mostly, 167 million people are there to eat whatever we produce in the country. When Mr President launched the agriculture transformation agenda in 2011, by appointing me as the Minister of Agriculture, that agenda was very clear - that we should add 20 million metric tonnes of food to our domestic food market between 2011 and 2015. We should also create 1.5 million jobs. There should be a lot of seasonal jobs through agriculture. It was clear that we have to move in a different manner and that we have done.
Agriculture in this country has always been there as a development sector. But it is like a social sector that does not really add up. So, we took a decision that agriculture should not be a development or social programme, but a business, as everything about agriculture is how to create wealth and valued jobs and revival of rural economies. In doing that, we decided to start with a number of reforms. First, we decided that beside agriculture being a business, we have to be private sector focused. We also resolved that we have to focus on value chains. So, it is not just about producing more of cassava or maize, but about adding more value to every single thing that we produce and that is how you make money in agriculture, not just because you produce the product.
When I became minister, I took that position that every commodity value chain has to be developed. And our starting point was to work closely and actively with state governments. The job has to be done in the states, so I got Mr President’s permission to decentralize the entire Ministry of Agriculture. Today we have 36 state offices being manned by qualified people. We also have six regional directors representing the six geopolitical zones. This is very crucial to the successes we have achieved so far. We wanted to have both the state and federal governments working and aligning towards the development of agriculture as a business. We are now planning with the state governments, monitoring and evaluating programmes as they commence. This has never happened before and it totally changed the relationship between federal and state governments in such a way that National programmes on agriculture now work in all the states.
What further reforms followed?
We also decided that, if we are going to succeed, we need a number of fundamental reforms. You cannot put old wine in a new wine bottle. Mr President has been fantastic in backing these reforms and without his support, the reforms wouldn’t have succeeded. As you know, the first reform was in the fertilizer sector. For 40 years, Nigeria has been running a system of fertilizer procurement by government. This had number of problems as it did not deliver fertilizer to real farmers. Only 10 to 11 per cent of farmers had access to the fertilizer sold by government. There was a lot of chaos because we had people bringing in 50 per cent fertilizer and 50 per cent sand then. The system was so corrupt and became rent seeking and it was not serving any purpose to farmers. The use of improved varieties by farmers was very low. The system also displaced the private sector and was not investing in seed. Also, the fertilizer company was not investing because there was no reason to do that. That should not have been the role of government, as it does not buy or distribute Coca Cola drink, yet the product is everywhere. We took a position that we have to turn everything around. And we did. We ended a corruption that existed for over 40 years in fertilizer procurement and distribution in 90 days. We took government totally out of buying, selling and distributing fertilizer. Everything is all in the hands of the private sector and that is the way it should be.
Another thing was that because government has always monopolized the seed sector, we planned to stop it. Like fertilizer, government had monopolised the seed sector for decades and no industry grew with the monopoly of the seed foundation. We ended that and today, foundation seed productions are all in the hands of the private sector. In addition, we also began the hard work of knowing who our customers are. Except if you are planning to steal or divert government resources, you will want to know who your customers are, what they are doing and what they are spending your money on. This country has never had a database for farmers. It is like saying a banker who does not know those who take loans from the bank. We started by putting in place the first-ever national biometric database for farmers in this country and within two years, we registered 10.5 million farmers. We have biometric information on them and linked them to the Nigerian Identity Management System. We are the first ministry or agency of government to do that and today, our farmers have identity cards. We are moving them to have smart cards for their biometric information. I must say that we are the first country in Africa to do this and all other countries are now coming here to learn the system. What this means is that we know who the farmers are, where they are and how to target them. That is what we have been doing with the biometric information.
What has been the strategic effect of the reforms?
We now know how to get the seeds and fertilizers to our farmers through a system that cuts away the rent seekers. Farmers now have mobile phones and we are reaching our farmers directly. It is just like somebody going to the bank to collect his or her own money. You cannot collect another person’s money. The mobile phone and the identity management information allow us to do that. We have also designed and launched the Electronic Wallet System. The system allows farmers to get access to seeds and other equipment via their mobile phones. The most potent tool in the hands of farmers now is the mobile phone, as they access farm inputs and funds through it, just like you and I browse our accounts on our mobile phones. We have now begun the process of modernizing agriculture using ICT. Within two years, we reached eight million farmers directly via the electronic wallet system. In the past, you would see farmers queuing to get fertilizers and they were being treated like beggars, as if giving them fertilizers was a favour. We changed this system and it is the best agricultural policy that this government has introduced.
Being the first in Africa and the world to launch the Electronic Wallet System, India, Brazil, Argentina and China are all coming to us to learn about it. If you were at the World Economic Forum in Abuja, you would have seen how African countries were coming to us for enquiries. Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Ghana are coming to learn this system. In fact, the African Union said they are going to make the Nigerian Electronic Wallet System something that should be done by every African country in order to end corruption in fertilizer and seeds distribution. This is very significant as Nigeria had the worst corrupt fertilizer system. But today Nigeria is exporting the product.
I saw women farmers when I went to Zamfara and Katsina States. Immediately I alighted from my car, they rushed to me. Security agents with me were scared and wanted to stop them but I said no, that the women had nothing threatening. The women who were very happy put their hands in their pockets and brought out mobile phones. They said ‘Hon Minister, with these mobile phones, the men can’t cheat us anymore.’ One of them, Alhaja Tella from Katsina State, built a house from the system. Another woman from Zamfara built a house from the two acres of land where she farms. Today, she is taking care of 23 orphans. One cannot despise the time of little beginnings. That means a lot to her. And that is what I think government is all about. Government is about getting the citizens empowered in a transparent way.
What challenges were there in transforming the sector?
Yes, we encountered challenges as we rolled out these programmes. It is usual with any thing in life. It is sometimes like surgery, where you go in to remove something that are not good in the system, but when you get in, you now discover that it is complicated. In some areas, there was the problem of mobile penetration. We wanted this programme to work well in every local government across the country. So, we resolved to work together with the UK government on that. We have updated the system with what we call tap technology. The farmers are still getting their seeds and fertilizer through mobile phones. They would bring their biometric cards, which have all their information that cannot be duplicated, and tap on the Android phone and all the information on them will come. They do not need any mobile network to do this. Immediately, the information on their phones would be used to transact the fertilizer or seeds business. They used that to trigger payment into the agriculture dealer. According to the UK government, we are the first in the world to do so. All I am saying is that we are rapidly innovating in agriculture in Nigeria. As the President said, we want to make the sector to be productive, efficient and competitive. We are not going to lag behind in technology.
Generally, what are the benefits of the new agricultural focus in the country?
The benefits of all these are that in the last two years, $5 billion of investment has come into Nigeria to manufacture fertilizer. Where did this money come from? It came from Indorama, $1.3bn. Notore and Aliko Dangote are investing about $2.5bn. In about three to four years, Nigeria will be a major exporter of fertilizer. This is happening because government is out and private sector is in. Secondly, in terms of seeds, what has happened in the last two years as a result of the reforms is that seed companies have multiplied. When we started in 2011, we had only five seed companies. Today, we have 80 seed companies in the country including the largest seed company in the world. It has opened offices in Nigeria and has already hired 35 members of staff. Every seed company wants to be here because of the reforms.
Let me move to the impact of all of these on the financial market. When we started two and half years ago, only 0.7 per cent of total bank lending was going to the agricultural sector. We put in place a facility with the Central Bank of Nigeria. We worked very closely in the development of a programme that would reduce the risk of lending facility to agriculture. We fixed all the agricultural value chains. Last year, the total of bank share going into agriculture was increased from 0.7 per cent when we started to five per cent. We expect that it will get to seven per cent this year and 10 per cent in another year from now. I used to run after bankers. But today bankers run after us. They have seen the business opportunity in agriculture.
The banks’ total lending figures to agro-dealers in 2012 when we stated was $20 million. By 2013, banks in Nigeria have lent to these agro-dealers $53 million. Let’s take the fertilizer companies. Because of the reforms, banks lent to them $100 million in 2012; in 2013, $500 million. The banks did not lose anything for lending to agriculture. So, we have proven that agriculture can work as a business. Today, agriculture has the lowest non-performing loans in this country. We just launched a fund known as Funds for Agriculture Financing in Nigeria (FAFIN). This fund is another innovation because we recognized that businesses need more than short term planning. They need long time measure. We took government money and that of Germany to set up this fund. It is a N100 billion fund. This fund will now lend to new agro businesses to enable them grow. We are not going to abandon new and small-scale agro-business companies. We are putting around them right financial structures to enable them grow.
At the start of the administration, we said that we are going to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice by 2015. Many people thought that was impossible. But we were not discouraged. I was mindful of all the challenges we have around it. It didn’t make any sense that Nigeria was importing rice at the scale we were importing it. We were the second highest importer of rice in the world. Yet we have lands and facilities to produce rice. There is no part of this country that cannot grow rice. Nigeria should be exporter of rice and not importer. We went into the hard work of doing just that. We started with mass distribution of high quality seeds to our farmers. These seeds are called New Rice for Africa (NERICA). The two main varieties are called Faro44 and Faro52. These are long grain rice varieties that march any type of rice that is imported to Nigeria today. We began to give that to our farmers and there was instant transformation. Today, literally every farmer that is growing rice has shifted from local varieties into these two varieties.
The yield is phenomenal. What we are seeing today is that rice pyramids are coming to Nigeria. Farmers in the country produced 2.95 m metric tons of rice last year. In 2012, we did 1.5 million metric ton additional. If you take a look at that and you say yes convert it, you will know that we have gone far. We were importing 2.3 million metric tonnes. So, we are now about 80 to 85 per cent self-sufficient in paddy production. We are close to our target. We are working very hard to transform paddy into high quality rice. The number of integrated rice mill that can turn paddy into finished rice increased from one functional one that was in Kano when we started three years ago to 15. Total capacity of all of them is 540,000 metric tons. Small-scale mills are expanding. Go to Kano, Abakaliki, Enugu and so on, the mills are growing at 20 to 40 per cent per year. They are competing very well. The rice policy is working. People who were saying that it will not work, are recanting now. Yes, we have some challenges. But we are overcoming it. Dangote has shown interest in the rice business. He announced that he will invest $300 million into rice production in Nigeria. Investors are growing in this area. It shows Nigeria is doing well in the area.
What has your ministry done to get cassava beyond the level the last administration left it?
Mr. President was very concerned about the issue of high import bill we have for wheat. We spent $5bn importing wheat. We were making farmers of other countries happy importing wheat. I don’t have any problem with importation of wheat. But we must find a way of cutting that bill down by using our own local products to substitute for the wheat we import. That was why Mr. President launched the cassava composite flower for making bread. We are the largest producer of cassava in the world. We must also become the largest exporter of the produce. We decided that we must use cassava flower to produce bread, cassava for starch and cassava sweetness to replace sugar that we are importing. We decided to turn cassava into gold for farmers.
When I became minister, 45 per cent of cassava in this country was under the ground. It could not be marketed. That created a lot of problem. What we did was simply to start creating market for cassava. And it is working. Today, we have 30 bakeries that are producing cassava bread. The breads are fresh and good. The bread is cheaper and healthier. If we can cut the consumption of wheat by 20 per cent, we will save N240 billion every year. We have a US company that is working in Nigeria in the last one year. It wants to invest $200 m at Alape, Kogi State in setting up a company that will be producing cassava starch. It will also produce sweetener from cassava.
It does appear that your ministry is focusing on few crops. How true is that perception?
It is not true. Let me tell you what we have done in cocoa. We are doing remarkably well in that area. Nigeria is playing second or third fiddle to other countries. The big players are Ivory Coast, Ghana and Cameroon. We have the potential to produce more cocoa than these countries if we do the right things. The cocoa transformation is working in the South West, South East and South South. We are distributing 3.5 million of high quality cocoa pods to farmers. The president has authorised the distribution to farmer free of charge. In terms of seedling, that translates into 114 million of cocoa seedlings. In 2013, we distributed 1.1 million metric tons of the pods. We are still distributing.
The cocoa hybrids that we are distributing in Nigeria will give five times the yields we were getting before. 2.5 tonnes per hectare is the average yield now. Farmers were getting 0.5 tons per hectare before. So you can see the difference. Secondly, they mature in two and a half years instead of five years. Today, the World Cocoa Foundation said that to fill one million metric tonnes deficit in the global market, a lot of it will come from Nigeria because of what we are doing. There is massive amount of work going on. We distributed to farmers last year 12.5 million seedlings. All was done free of charge. From Ekiti, Ondo, Cross River to Abia states, cocoa is growing very well. We are establishing in the next quarter what is called Cocoa Corporation of Nigeria. It will replace the old Cocoa marketing board. It will allow our farmers to get better market, better prices and better support. This is the first major institutional reform and it is being done by this government.
On oil palm, we are distributing to our farmers nine million sprouted nuts of high yielding oil palm seedlings. These are short stature oil palm seedling that gives you high yield. That is being given free of charge. The seedling is given to everybody both in the private sector or public sector. Look at what has happened to palm oil sector especially the Okumo and PRESCO companies. They are doing well in the stock market. Investment in oil palm sector is expanding. The government is committed to raising it to a height that it can compete at the global stage.
WHAT is the renewed focus on Nigeria’s agriculture sector all about?First, we
abandoned the agriculture sector because everybody was making cheap and easy money from oil. Yes, you can scoop oil, but nobody eats or drinks oil. You need agriculture to be able to feed the nation. This trajectory that we were spending so much money importing foods that we ordinarily should be producing in Nigeria didn’t make any sense, because Nigeria doesn’t have any business importing most of the food items. We have the land, the water, cheap labour and the market. Mostly, 167 million people are there to eat whatever we produce in the country. When Mr President launched the agriculture transformation agenda in 2011, by appointing me as the Minister of Agriculture, that agenda was very clear - that we should add 20 million metric tonnes of food to our domestic food market between 2011 and 2015. We should also create 1.5 million jobs. There should be a lot of seasonal jobs through agriculture. It was clear that we have to move in a different manner and that we have done.
Agriculture in this country has always been there as a development sector. But it is like a social sector that does not really add up. So, we took a decision that agriculture should not be a development or social programme, but a business, as everything about agriculture is how to create wealth and valued jobs and revival of rural economies. In doing that, we decided to start with a number of reforms. First, we decided that beside agriculture being a business, we have to be private sector focused. We also resolved that we have to focus on value chains. So, it is not just about producing more of cassava or maize, but about adding more value to every single thing that we produce and that is how you make money in agriculture, not just because you produce the product.
When I became minister, I took that position that every commodity value chain has to be developed. And our starting point was to work closely and actively with state governments. The job has to be done in the states, so I got Mr President’s permission to decentralize the entire Ministry of Agriculture. Today we have 36 state offices being manned by qualified people. We also have six regional directors representing the six geopolitical zones. This is very crucial to the successes we have achieved so far. We wanted to have both the state and federal governments working and aligning towards the development of agriculture as a business. We are now planning with the state governments, monitoring and evaluating programmes as they commence. This has never happened before and it totally changed the relationship between federal and state governments in such a way that National programmes on agriculture now work in all the states.
What further reforms followed?
We also decided that, if we are going to succeed, we need a number of fundamental reforms. You cannot put old wine in a new wine bottle. Mr President has been fantastic in backing these reforms and without his support, the reforms wouldn’t have succeeded. As you know, the first reform was in the fertilizer sector. For 40 years, Nigeria has been running a system of fertilizer procurement by government. This had number of problems as it did not deliver fertilizer to real farmers. Only 10 to 11 per cent of farmers had access to the fertilizer sold by government. There was a lot of chaos because we had people bringing in 50 per cent fertilizer and 50 per cent sand then. The system was so corrupt and became rent seeking and it was not serving any purpose to farmers. The use of improved varieties by farmers was very low. The system also displaced the private sector and was not investing in seed. Also, the fertilizer company was not investing because there was no reason to do that. That should not have been the role of government, as it does not buy or distribute Coca Cola drink, yet the product is everywhere. We took a position that we have to turn everything around. And we did. We ended a corruption that existed for over 40 years in fertilizer procurement and distribution in 90 days. We took government totally out of buying, selling and distributing fertilizer. Everything is all in the hands of the private sector and that is the way it should be.
Another thing was that because government has always monopolized the seed sector, we planned to stop it. Like fertilizer, government had monopolised the seed sector for decades and no industry grew with the monopoly of the seed foundation. We ended that and today, foundation seed productions are all in the hands of the private sector. In addition, we also began the hard work of knowing who our customers are. Except if you are planning to steal or divert government resources, you will want to know who your customers are, what they are doing and what they are spending your money on. This country has never had a database for farmers. It is like saying a banker who does not know those who take loans from the bank. We started by putting in place the first-ever national biometric database for farmers in this country and within two years, we registered 10.5 million farmers. We have biometric information on them and linked them to the Nigerian Identity Management System. We are the first ministry or agency of government to do that and today, our farmers have identity cards. We are moving them to have smart cards for their biometric information. I must say that we are the first country in Africa to do this and all other countries are now coming here to learn the system. What this means is that we know who the farmers are, where they are and how to target them. That is what we have been doing with the biometric information.
What has been the strategic effect of the reforms?
We now know how to get the seeds and fertilizers to our farmers through a system that cuts away the rent seekers. Farmers now have mobile phones and we are reaching our farmers directly. It is just like somebody going to the bank to collect his or her own money. You cannot collect another person’s money. The mobile phone and the identity management information allow us to do that. We have also designed and launched the Electronic Wallet System. The system allows farmers to get access to seeds and other equipment via their mobile phones. The most potent tool in the hands of farmers now is the mobile phone, as they access farm inputs and funds through it, just like you and I browse our accounts on our mobile phones. We have now begun the process of modernizing agriculture using ICT. Within two years, we reached eight million farmers directly via the electronic wallet system. In the past, you would see farmers queuing to get fertilizers and they were being treated like beggars, as if giving them fertilizers was a favour. We changed this system and it is the best agricultural policy that this government has introduced.
Being the first in Africa and the world to launch the Electronic Wallet System, India, Brazil, Argentina and China are all coming to us to learn about it. If you were at the World Economic Forum in Abuja, you would have seen how African countries were coming to us for enquiries. Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Ghana are coming to learn this system. In fact, the African Union said they are going to make the Nigerian Electronic Wallet System something that should be done by every African country in order to end corruption in fertilizer and seeds distribution. This is very significant as Nigeria had the worst corrupt fertilizer system. But today Nigeria is exporting the product.
I saw women farmers when I went to Zamfara and Katsina States. Immediately I alighted from my car, they rushed to me. Security agents with me were scared and wanted to stop them but I said no, that the women had nothing threatening. The women who were very happy put their hands in their pockets and brought out mobile phones. They said ‘Hon Minister, with these mobile phones, the men can’t cheat us anymore.’ One of them, Alhaja Tella from Katsina State, built a house from the system. Another woman from Zamfara built a house from the two acres of land where she farms. Today, she is taking care of 23 orphans. One cannot despise the time of little beginnings. That means a lot to her. And that is what I think government is all about. Government is about getting the citizens empowered in a transparent way.
What challenges were there in transforming the sector?
Yes, we encountered challenges as we rolled out these programmes. It is usual with any thing in life. It is sometimes like surgery, where you go in to remove something that are not good in the system, but when you get in, you now discover that it is complicated. In some areas, there was the problem of mobile penetration. We wanted this programme to work well in every local government across the country. So, we resolved to work together with the UK government on that. We have updated the system with what we call tap technology. The farmers are still getting their seeds and fertilizer through mobile phones. They would bring their biometric cards, which have all their information that cannot be duplicated, and tap on the Android phone and all the information on them will come. They do not need any mobile network to do this. Immediately, the information on their phones would be used to transact the fertilizer or seeds business. They used that to trigger payment into the agriculture dealer. According to the UK government, we are the first in the world to do so. All I am saying is that we are rapidly innovating in agriculture in Nigeria. As the President said, we want to make the sector to be productive, efficient and competitive. We are not going to lag behind in technology.
Generally, what are the benefits of the new agricultural focus in the country?
The benefits of all these are that in the last two years, $5 billion of investment has come into Nigeria to manufacture fertilizer. Where did this money come from? It came from Indorama, $1.3bn. Notore and Aliko Dangote are investing about $2.5bn. In about three to four years, Nigeria will be a major exporter of fertilizer. This is happening because government is out and private sector is in. Secondly, in terms of seeds, what has happened in the last two years as a result of the reforms is that seed companies have multiplied. When we started in 2011, we had only five seed companies. Today, we have 80 seed companies in the country including the largest seed company in the world. It has opened offices in Nigeria and has already hired 35 members of staff. Every seed company wants to be here because of the reforms.
Let me move to the impact of all of these on the financial market. When we started two and half years ago, only 0.7 per cent of total bank lending was going to the agricultural sector. We put in place a facility with the Central Bank of Nigeria. We worked very closely in the development of a programme that would reduce the risk of lending facility to agriculture. We fixed all the agricultural value chains. Last year, the total of bank share going into agriculture was increased from 0.7 per cent when we started to five per cent. We expect that it will get to seven per cent this year and 10 per cent in another year from now. I used to run after bankers. But today bankers run after us. They have seen the business opportunity in agriculture.
The banks’ total lending figures to agro-dealers in 2012 when we stated was $20 million. By 2013, banks in Nigeria have lent to these agro-dealers $53 million. Let’s take the fertilizer companies. Because of the reforms, banks lent to them $100 million in 2012; in 2013, $500 million. The banks did not lose anything for lending to agriculture. So, we have proven that agriculture can work as a business. Today, agriculture has the lowest non-performing loans in this country. We just launched a fund known as Funds for Agriculture Financing in Nigeria (FAFIN). This fund is another innovation because we recognized that businesses need more than short term planning. They need long time measure. We took government money and that of Germany to set up this fund. It is a N100 billion fund. This fund will now lend to new agro businesses to enable them grow. We are not going to abandon new and small-scale agro-business companies. We are putting around them right financial structures to enable them grow.
At the start of the administration, we said that we are going to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice by 2015. Many people thought that was impossible. But we were not discouraged. I was mindful of all the challenges we have around it. It didn’t make any sense that Nigeria was importing rice at the scale we were importing it. We were the second highest importer of rice in the world. Yet we have lands and facilities to produce rice. There is no part of this country that cannot grow rice. Nigeria should be exporter of rice and not importer. We went into the hard work of doing just that. We started with mass distribution of high quality seeds to our farmers. These seeds are called New Rice for Africa (NERICA). The two main varieties are called Faro44 and Faro52. These are long grain rice varieties that march any type of rice that is imported to Nigeria today. We began to give that to our farmers and there was instant transformation. Today, literally every farmer that is growing rice has shifted from local varieties into these two varieties.
The yield is phenomenal. What we are seeing today is that rice pyramids are coming to Nigeria. Farmers in the country produced 2.95 m metric tons of rice last year. In 2012, we did 1.5 million metric ton additional. If you take a look at that and you say yes convert it, you will know that we have gone far. We were importing 2.3 million metric tonnes. So, we are now about 80 to 85 per cent self-sufficient in paddy production. We are close to our target. We are working very hard to transform paddy into high quality rice. The number of integrated rice mill that can turn paddy into finished rice increased from one functional one that was in Kano when we started three years ago to 15. Total capacity of all of them is 540,000 metric tons. Small-scale mills are expanding. Go to Kano, Abakaliki, Enugu and so on, the mills are growing at 20 to 40 per cent per year. They are competing very well. The rice policy is working. People who were saying that it will not work, are recanting now. Yes, we have some challenges. But we are overcoming it. Dangote has shown interest in the rice business. He announced that he will invest $300 million into rice production in Nigeria. Investors are growing in this area. It shows Nigeria is doing well in the area.
What has your ministry done to get cassava beyond the level the last administration left it?
Mr. President was very concerned about the issue of high import bill we have for wheat. We spent $5bn importing wheat. We were making farmers of other countries happy importing wheat. I don’t have any problem with importation of wheat. But we must find a way of cutting that bill down by using our own local products to substitute for the wheat we import. That was why Mr. President launched the cassava composite flower for making bread. We are the largest producer of cassava in the world. We must also become the largest exporter of the produce. We decided that we must use cassava flower to produce bread, cassava for starch and cassava sweetness to replace sugar that we are importing. We decided to turn cassava into gold for farmers.
When I became minister, 45 per cent of cassava in this country was under the ground. It could not be marketed. That created a lot of problem. What we did was simply to start creating market for cassava. And it is working. Today, we have 30 bakeries that are producing cassava bread. The breads are fresh and good. The bread is cheaper and healthier. If we can cut the consumption of wheat by 20 per cent, we will save N240 billion every year. We have a US company that is working in Nigeria in the last one year. It wants to invest $200 m at Alape, Kogi State in setting up a company that will be producing cassava starch. It will also produce sweetener from cassava.
It does appear that your ministry is focusing on few crops. How true is that perception?
It is not true. Let me tell you what we have done in cocoa. We are doing remarkably well in that area. Nigeria is playing second or third fiddle to other countries. The big players are Ivory Coast, Ghana and Cameroon. We have the potential to produce more cocoa than these countries if we do the right things. The cocoa transformation is working in the South West, South East and South South. We are distributing 3.5 million of high quality cocoa pods to farmers. The president has authorised the distribution to farmer free of charge. In terms of seedling, that translates into 114 million of cocoa seedlings. In 2013, we distributed 1.1 million metric tons of the pods. We are still distributing.
The cocoa hybrids that we are distributing in Nigeria will give five times the yields we were getting before. 2.5 tonnes per hectare is the average yield now. Farmers were getting 0.5 tons per hectare before. So you can see the difference. Secondly, they mature in two and a half years instead of five years. Today, the World Cocoa Foundation said that to fill one million metric tonnes deficit in the global market, a lot of it will come from Nigeria because of what we are doing. There is massive amount of work going on. We distributed to farmers last year 12.5 million seedlings. All was done free of charge. From Ekiti, Ondo, Cross River to Abia states, cocoa is growing very well. We are establishing in the next quarter what is called Cocoa Corporation of Nigeria. It will replace the old Cocoa marketing board. It will allow our farmers to get better market, better prices and better support. This is the first major institutional reform and it is being done by this government.
On oil palm, we are distributing to our farmers nine million sprouted nuts of high yielding oil palm seedlings. These are short stature oil palm seedling that gives you high yield. That is being given free of charge. The seedling is given to everybody both in the private sector or public sector. Look at what has happened to palm oil sector especially the Okumo and PRESCO companies. They are doing well in the stock market. Investment in oil palm sector is expanding. The government is committed to raising it to a height that it can compete at the global stage.