The federal government says Nigeria has been ranked the third best-performing country in West Africa at the fourth Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Biennial Review (BR) process.

Ibrahim Mohammed, deputy director of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), disclosed this at the National Dialogue on the fourth CAADP BR report on Thursday in Abuja.

The dialogue was organised by ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) in collaboration with the FMAFS.

Mr Mohammed, who is also the CAADP Focal Point in FMAFS, in his presentation tagged ‘CAADP 4th BR’ report, said the country met 6.28 per cent out of the 9.29per cent benchmark set for each country at the 2023 fourth BR cycle.

He said no country could meet the benchmark of 9.29 national budgetary allocations to agriculture.

“Nigeria is not on track in achieving seven Malabo commitments by 2025; the country is on track in seven performance categories out of the 27 which spread along the seven commitments.

“The seven commitments are commitment to the principles and values of the CAADP process and commitment to enhancing investment and finance in agriculture.

“Others are commitment to ending hunger in Africa by 2025 and halving poverty through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation. The overall country scored stood at 6.28 per cent,” he said.

Mr Mohammed, however, urged the government to increase the sector budgetary provision to meet the 10 per cent of the total annual national budget for agriculture.

Ibrahim Tanimu, director of Planning and Policy Coordination, FMAFS, said the meeting was designed to allow stakeholders to identify data gaps and possible sources for the next biennial review process.

According to him, it is also important to identify areas for preparing policy briefs for articulating projects and programmes towards enhancing performance.

Mr Tanimu said the 2023 fourth biennial review report was adopted at the African Union summit in February and officially unveiled at the continental level in March.

“The report indicated that out of the 49 countries that reported there was no single country on track of achieving the seven Malabo Commitments by 2025. It is pertinent to mention that Nigeria is committed to the implementation of CAADP since 2010 and have been participating along with other member states on the conduct of the biennial review exercise.

“Nigeria’s report for the 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023 have indicated significant improvement towards achieving accelerated agricultural transformation for food and nutrition security in the country,” he said.

Mr Tanimu commended AAN for consistently collaborating with the ministry through the CAADP biennial review process and chairing the steering committee on implementing the National Agricultural Gender Policy across the country.

Azubike Nwokoye, Food and Agriculture Programme Manager, AAN, identified CAADP BR as the main mutual accountability mechanism to track the progress of the African Union Member States in implementing the Malabo Declaration.

According to him, the declaration provides the direction for Africa’s agricultural transformation from 2015 to 2025 within the framework of CAADP.

(NAN)