10 Nigerian food products that need to be packaged and marketed like pizza under an ambitious $10bn Food Foreign Exchange Programme

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Abula
[2] Suya/asun/kilishi
[3] Pepper soup
[4] Jollof/fried rice
[5] Moi-moi and ogi
[6] Gari and fish
[7] Nkwobi
[8] Fried yam and akara
[9] Yam porridge
[10] Pounded yam and egusi

With foreign direct investment in sort supply, it is time to think outside the box. Ministers need to be given foreign exchange targets, which they should meet or get sacked.

What our agriculture and food minister needs to do is gather all the major food processors in his office and ask them to come up with an export plan. He should tell them he needs Nigerian foodstuffs on the shelves of supermarkets worldwide as part of a plan to raise $10bn before the end of the year.

Interest-free loans should be offered to anyone who needs to expand their business premises to enact the plan. Personally, I would like to see several of our elite join forces to float a conglomerate called the Nigerian Food Company that will be quoted on the Lagos, London, New York, Frankfurt, Johannesburg and Tokyo stock exchanges.

Given the ethical case for food, I think it should be our millionaire evangelical clergymen who join forces to create this Nigerian Food Company. It should aim to be Nigeria’s leading commercial light that competes with the likes of Nestle, Kraft Food, Mars, Unilever, etc on the global stage.

A company of that magnitude would find it easy to supply the likes of Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Carrefour, Intermarché, Aldi, ShopRite, Albertsons, Safeway, Walmart, etc. Why are products like pizza and kebabs delivered to homes across Europe but our African products are not?