How Nigeria, Others Can Maximize Agric Sector Potentials —Uganda Development Bank Boss

The Managing Director, Uganda Development Bank Limited, Mrs Patricia Ojangole on Thursday lamented that despite the fact that the agriculture sector accounts for 70 per cent of employment in Africa, the continent has yet to take advantage of the huge opportunities in the sector.

Ojangole said this in Abuja at the opening session of the association’s second annual general assembly.

The event which was attended by representatives of all the DFIs in Nigeria had as its theme, “Innovative financing for sustainable growth and development.”

She said that agriculture remains the strongest source of economic growth in Uganda and Africa at large as it has the potentials to create employment, improve livelihood and social development.

However, she lamented that despite these potentials, the impact of the sector in terms of economic development has not been felt in the continent.

She said, “If you check the East Asia and the Pacific, the trend is growing which shows there’s development in the economic sector, the Western Europe is more developed where growth in services is visible.”

“Before now, labour usually moves from agriculture to manufacturing and to industries. But it’s not the case today. So, it will appear that the hope for sustainable job creation is maybe the servicing sector and not the industries.”

To achieve the development goals across Africa, she called for more funding of key projects by Development Finance Institution.

She said, “Uganda relies on rainfall agriculture, in 2016 there was a serious shock that affected the economy for a whole year.

“In the service sectors, jobs can be created through provision of digital social services. Finance is not the problem of empowerments but lack of trained personnel, project done and done wrongly, corruption makes development stagnant.

“When money is mobilized and rightly used it will give room for more employment and development.