Agribusiness Development and Investment Promotion in South West Nigeria

This study examines agribusiness development trends and investment promotion strategies in South West Nigeria, assessing the effectiveness of state and federal investment facilitation mechanisms for the agricultural sector. The South West geopolitical zone, with its large consumer markets, processing industry base, and port infrastructure in Lagos, offers significant agribusiness investment opportunities across production, processing, and distribution. Despite this potential, agribusiness investment levels remain below their potential due to infrastructure, financing, and regulatory challenges. This study uses a mixed-method design, combining analysis of investment registration data from the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission and Lagos and Ogun State investment promotion agencies with interviews of 45 agribusiness investors, development finance officers, and policy officials. Investment trends, incentive effectiveness, and barrier identification are assessed. Findings reveal that agribusiness investment in the South West has grown significantly since 2019, driven primarily by small and medium agro-processing enterprises and poultry farming. However, large-scale plantation and processing investments remain constrained by land tenure complexity, infrastructure deficits, and foreign exchange access difficulties. Investment promotion agencies lack agricultural sector specialist capacity. The study concludes that more targeted agribusiness investment promotion with sector-specific investment facilitation services is needed. It recommends dedicated agribusiness investment windows with one-stop approval processes and infrastructure guarantee schemes.

Keywords: agribusiness development, investment promotion, South West Nigeria, agro-processing, investment barriers.