Dangote Restoring Value to Agriculture, Sponsors 2025 Agric Show

By Ahmed Mohammed 

The Dangote Group says it is working with strategic partners to revitalise and strengthen Nigeria’s agricultural sector, as it sponsors the 17th National Agricultural Show opening Tuesday, November 25, 2025, in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

In a statement, the company’s spokesman, Anthony Chiejina, said expanding mechanised agriculture remains critical to boosting Nigeria’s GDP and creating meaningful employment opportunities for the country’s growing youth population.

“Through this partnership, the company aims to encourage greater participation in commercial agriculture and reinforce its role in advancing Nigeria’s economic growth,” he said.

He described the theme for this year’s show — “Employing Smallholder Farmers: Restoring Value, Ensuring Productivity will Ensure Attainment of Food Security in Nigeria” — as timely and appropriate.

“Restoring the value of agriculture offers Nigeria more than nostalgic appeal; it provides a pragmatic route to economic renewal,” Mr Chiejina added. “With the right incentives and modern practices, agriculture can once again serve as a reliable engine of growth, anchoring jobs, stabilising markets, and giving the economy a sturdier foundation.”

A key fixture in Nigeria’s agricultural calendar, the National Agricultural Show provides a platform to showcase innovations across the value chain.

According to the statement, Dangote Group is developing rice mills in Kano, Jigawa, Niger, Kebbi, and Sokoto States, with a combined processing capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum, in support of the government’s push for food security.

The Senior Adviser to the President of Dangote Group, Mrs Fatima Wali-Abdurrahman, said the company is also investing heavily in backward integration projects in the sugar sub-sector in Nasarawa and Adamawa States as part of its commitment to restoring value to agro-allied industrialisation.

She noted that the company’s fertiliser complex in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos, has a production capacity of 3 million metric tonnes of urea per year, further strengthening its contribution to Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN), organisers of the annual Agric Show, Arc Kabiru Adamu, hailed the Dangote Group’s longstanding support.

“Dangote Group has been our greatest ally from inception, and we have enjoyed tremendous and invaluable support from them — such that without them we would not be able to continue holding the show efficiently,” he said.

Arc Adamu, who is also the President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), urged the conglomerate to maintain its focus on agriculture following its success in the oil and gas sector.

He added: “This year we envisage a tumultuous turnout of farm machinery manufacturers, processors, researchers, and youth and women farmers answering the clarion call to bolster Nigeria’s food system.”