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Sanjo Faniyan, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) National Consultant on Food Security and Food Systems analyst, has said that Nigeria was making significant progress in implementing the United Nations Food Systems Transformation pathways.

Faniran, who is the immediate past National Convenor for the Implementation of UN Food Systems Transformation in Nigeria, spoke on the sidelines of the Southwest Zonal Review Meeting held in Lagos.

According to him, the food systems transformation initiative started in 2021 on the recommendation of the UN Secretary-General, directing member countries to examine issues affecting their food systems.

‘The food system is the interconnectedness of all the food value chains. It’s not only agriculture; we are looking at all the food value chains. Nigeria went around all the states and came up with recommendations which were presented by President Muhammadu Buhari in New York on September 23, 2021,’ Faniran explained.

He noted that it was thereafter agreed that every two to three years, there would be a review of implementation by all UN member countries. The first review was held in 2023 and the second in 2025, both led by Vice President Kashim Shettima.

On implementation so far, Faniran said: ‘So far so good. States have cooperated.’

He disclosed that to ensure nationwide coverage, the country adopted a geopolitical zonal arrangement with one coordinating state per zone – Lagos for South-West, Kano for North-West, Borno for North-East, Enugu for South-East, Cross River for South-South and Kwara (Ilorin) for North-Central.

‘With this arrangement, it is easy to decentralize coordination. The report on implementation will be obtained from the coordinating states and all states in the zone will come together to give information on what they have done so far, where are the gaps, capacity requirements and how the federal government and development partners can support,’ he said.

Faniran stressed that the focus goes beyond production to processing, storage and other components of the food value chain, adding that Nigeria has been ranked by the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub in Rome as one of the serious and committed countries.

Speaking on post-harvest losses, he said storage remains a major concern of the current administration. ‘The issue of storage has become very important. At the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, it is taken as an important segment of controlling food wastages. Lagos State is an example – it has created market hubs where agric products that would have been destroyed are taken for people to buy, sometimes subsidised by government,’ he said.

On how food systems translate to health, he noted that the end product of the food system is healthy diets and nutrition. ‘We are looking at food systems from farm to dining table. At the dining table, the food should be healthy. Good diet gives improved nutrition; improved nutrition improves human capital capacity. When you are healthy, productivity level is higher and contribution to economic growth is guaranteed,’ Faniran stated.

He also said the issue of insecurity affecting farming is being taken seriously by President Bola Tinubu, noting that recent presidential directives show renewed commitment to secure farmers and farming communities.

Isiaka Ibrahim, Food Systems and Nutrition Specialist with the FAO of the United Nations, said tangible steps have been taken by the Federal Government in collaboration with technical partners to transform Nigeria’s food systems.

He said after the 2021 zonal dialogues which culminated in the development of Nigeria’s Food Systems Pathways, 78 priorities were set for implementation.

‘This is a collaborative effort that all stakeholders participated in, including government. Secondly, the Federal Government validated the National Agric Food Investment Plan. Even if tangible transformation is not yet fully seen, key steps have been taken by government in collaboration with technical partners like FAO,’ he said.

Ibrahim noted that globally, the focus is now on technology, climate-smart agriculture, precision agriculture and innovation, including school farms and rooftop farming, as against practices that degrade the soil.

‘The way to go is to embrace technology and innovation and at the same time ensure facilities and infrastructure are in place to ensure timely processing and availability of all-year-round food,’ he said.

He disclosed that FAO is one of four key UN agencies implementing the Agrifood Systems Transformation and Innovation Project initiated by the Food Systems Coordination Hub in Rome, alongside UNICEF and others.

‘One of the key result areas is strengthening of food systems coordination in the country and that is what FAO is implementing. We want to take stock of progress Nigeria has made since the 2021 stock-taking and development of pathways – what achievements have been made by the coordinating states, what are the challenges, capacity gaps and how to develop state capacity, because implementation of food systems is actually at sub-national level,’ Ibrahim added.

When Nigeria’s premier private University of Technology commenced operations on 1st July 2005 at Ota, Ogun State, with the noble, bold and brilliant Vision: ‘To be a world-renowned university that is committed to the development and transformation of society through environment-friendly technologies and other innovations’, the futuristic founders and patriotic minds behind it perhaps could only have guessed what it would achieve years later.

But hardly could they have realised that it would attain this lofty level with some of the best-performing graduates in engineering and different fields of human endeavour across the globe, and currently boasting two professors listed in the 2026 Ranking of the Top 2% Scientists in the World. Yes, you read that right. That is the power of vision acted upon with total commitment, character, creativity, and an unwavering passion for excellence sustained all through two demanding decades.

As Sam Walton, the world – renowned American business magnate (now of blessed memory), rightly noted: ‘The secret of success is constancy of purpose.’ That is it! Right from the period of the first Vice Chancellor Prof Julius Okogie through that of his highly committed and capable successors from Prof. Isaac Adeyemi, through that of Prof. Jeremiah Ojediran to the current one, Prof Abel Olorunnisola the momentum has been consistent.

Good enough, all the members of staff, including the lecturers and administrators have keyed into the vision and have been guided by that moving mantra that: ‘Only the Best is Good for Bells’

Apart from raising students who are so well heeled in academics that they practicalise their knowledge while still in school to the point of owning their businesses and graduating as solution-providers instead of being job-seekers, they have become problem solvers to all manner of society’s multifaceted challenges.

As the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Olorunnisola highlighted during the recently held and well attended Press Conference ahead of the 18th Convocation the citadel of knowledge stands at the threshold of another milestone as it ‘prepares to graduate a new cohort of skilled individuals who have been found worthy in both character and learning.’

Interestingly, the past year has been a defining epoch for Bells University of Technology as it successfully celebrated its 20th anniversary, described as ‘a monumental two decades of pioneering private tertiary technological education in Nigeria. ‘

Guided by the University’s commitment to innovation and research impact it has recorded significant strides by making a historic debut in the prestigious 2026 Times Higher Education (THE). That is outstanding, is it not? Of course it is.

For instance, on the Sustainability Impact Rankings, assessing the Institutional contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), out of over 309 Universities in Nigeria, Bellstech proudly secured A place among the elite Ranked Institutions, placing 7th overall in Nigeria and 6th among Nigerian Private Universities. This is highly commendable. But there was more to come.

In strict compliance with National Universities Commission (NUC) Directives, Bells University formally established the College of Computing (COLCOMP), positioning its Curriculum right at the Cutting Edge of Information Science, Cybersecurity, and Computer Science.

Furthermore, on the provision of infrastructure and facilities, acting as catalysts to enhance the much – needed learning environment, he listed the completion and commissioning of several state-of-the-art facilities. These include a Centre for Climate Change – a Climate Monitoring Centre established in partnership with the National Meteorological Centre (NiMet); a newly established Centre for Artificial Intelligence (AI); a newly renovated central laboratory, and an expanded Digital Library Facility.

To prove the delivery of academic excellence with empirical evidence on the ground through awards, recognitions and grants, he stated that: ‘The students and faculty members have distinguished themselves globally, securing competitive scholarships, fellowships and research grants.

A few examples would suffice. For instance, Miss Rosemary Funke Adekunle and Mr Olawale Joel Adeyemi, two of the recent graduates, arrived in China on September 6, 2026 to commence Postgraduate Studies (up to PhD level) in Software Engineering and Computer Science and Technology respectively on full Chinese Government Scholarship. That is at the University of Electronics Science and Technology of China (UESTC).

Worthy of note is that a student of the University, Miss Fariat Damilola Hamzat emerged as the Overall Best Female Graduate in Food Science and Technology in Nigeria, clinching the prestigious Dolapo Coker Award. Furthermore, Mrs. Bolanle Esther Daramola secured the Second Position in the Poster Presentation Category, reinforcing the institution’s dominance in Agricultural and Food Science Research.

In a similar vein, students in the Surveying and Geoinformatics programme came 2nd in the Legacy Pitch Competition organised by Young Surveyors Network, Ogun State.

Another set of students secured 2nd and 3rd positions in Architecture Design Competition organised by the NIA Ogun Assembly. Yet, that was not all to the bumper package of well – deserved academic garlands. Also, three of the students have qualified for the Finals of the Smart Challenge Competition 2026-2027, Edition.

And on the sterling achievements of the lecturers, two professors of Bells University were listed in the 2026 Ranking of the Top 2% Scientists in the World. While Prof. Sunday O. Oyedepo was ranked no. 54, Prof. O. S. I. Fayomi was ranked no. 62, both in the Engineering Discipline.

Similarly, two of the lecturers, Dr B. I. Adetunji and Dr Tunde Adeleke secured Postdoctoral Research Fellowships at INTI International University, Malaysia and Durban University of Technology, South Africa respectively. These are truly commendable and worthy of emulation across the nation’s University spectrum.

As if all these were not enough, in the field of sports and holistic development, staying true to its Ethos of Building the ‘Total Person,’ Bellstech successfully hosted the 2nd Nigerian Private University Games Association (NPUGA) Championship, where the vibrant Student Athletes delivered stellar performances, proudly capturing the coveted Football Championship Crown.

The University deserves commendation for certifying a total of one thousand and sixty-one (1,061) graduands across various programs with

114 (15.6 percent) of them smiling back home with First Class degrees. And big kudos also goes to the overall Best Graduating Student, Miss Kafayat Abisola Lawal, from the Department of Computer Science who achieved a perfect Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.0/5.00 in Computer Science.

Twenty good years after, one’s standing ovation goes to all those who have breathed life into the University ‘s Mission Statement: ‘To discover, disseminate and apply the knowledge of science and engineering for human well-being and the development of the society’.

Africa’s growing creative industry needs improved access to financing, stronger copyright protection and better infrastructure to convert its expanding talent base into sustainable businesses, jobs and economic value, Adesoji Adesugba, founder and chairman of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Business Entrepreneurship, Skills and Technology (BEST) Centre, has said.

Adesugba made the call at the Africa Creators Conference (ACC 2.0), held at the Abuja International Trade and Convention Centre on Friday, in Abuja, where he outlined measures governments, financial institutions and industry stakeholders should adopt to strengthen the continent’s creative economy.

He said that although Africa has a large pool of creative talent, the industry continues to face structural constraints that prevent creators from fully benefiting from the commercial value of their work.

‘Africa is not short of creativity. Africa is short of share. Let the editing, the animation, the mastering, the licensing and the data hosting happen here, so that the value-added stays here,’ Adesugba said

He argued that the continent must move beyond producing creative content to building businesses and systems that allow creators to earn fairly from their intellectual property.

A major challenge, he said, is the limited access to finance faced by creative businesses, particularly because conventional lenders often struggle to recognise intellectual property as an asset that can support borrowing.

He urged banks, development finance institutions and capital market operators to develop financing models that accept creative assets, including music catalogues, film libraries, design portfolios and verified royalty streams, as collateral.

According to him, recognizing intellectual property as a bankable asset would help creators raise capital, expand production and invest in distribution without depending solely on personal funds or conventional forms of collateral.

Adesugba also called for the establishment of dedicated creative economic zones and hubs in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Port Harcourt and other major centres.

He said such hubs should provide reliable electricity, fibre-optic connectivity, production studios, post-production facilities and rendering infrastructure, supported by a competitive fiscal environment to attract investment and encourage creative businesses to scale.

On intellectual property, he stressed the need for stronger copyright enforcement, particularly against digital piracy, which continues to undermine creators’ earnings.

He also called for greater transparency among collective management organizations to ensure that royalties generated from broadcasting, streaming services and public performances reach the artists and other rights holders entitled to them.

Adesugba said the growing use of artificial intelligence in content creation also required clear safeguards to protect creators’ consent, ownership and right to compensation when their works, voices and likenesses are used.

While encouraging creative professionals to embrace emerging technologies, he said they must also understand how to protect their rights as the industry evolves.

He further identified professional and business management skills as critical to the growth of the sector, urging creators to improve their knowledge of contracts, taxation, branding and financial management.

‘Talent is natural; professionalism is learned,’ he said, stressing that creative ability must be supported by the business skills required to build sustainable enterprises.

To strengthen the commercial capacity of the industry, Adesugba proposed partnerships involving conference organisers, AfriLabs, UNESCO and relevant government ministries through the ACCI BEST Centre. Such collaboration, he said, could provide business clinics, mentorship and market linkages for emerging creators.

He also urged universities to connect research and teaching more closely with commercial opportunities in the creative sector.

On the regional market, he called for stronger African distribution networks, more efficient cross-border payment systems and co-production agreements to enable creators to reach wider audiences and benefit from opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

He encouraged creators to formalise their businesses, register their intellectual property, maintain proper financial records and join professional associations and chambers of commerce to improve their access to markets and business support.

Adesugba said Africa must ensure that the economic benefits generated by its creative output are shared more fairly with the people producing the content.

‘Our task now is to make sure that Africa is also paid, fully and fairly, for what the world enjoys,’ he said.

Conversations with Nigerian delegates attending the annual Nigeria-Belgium Luxembourg Business Forum revealed strong support for retaining more value at home. But they also reinforced a practical truth: Nigeria cannot legislate value addition without building the industrial system that makes it possible.

Over breakfast, the conversation began with cocoa. At lunch, it moved to minerals, machinery and industrial power. By dinner, we were discussing finance, European buyers and the uncomfortable possibility that a well-intentioned export restriction could harm the very Nigerian producers it was designed to support.

I am writing from Brussels, where I have been engaging with business leaders and institutional representatives attending the ongoing Nigeria Belgium Luxembourg Business Forum. Many have travelled from Nigeria to explore partnerships in agriculture, manufacturing, energy, maritime logistics, finance, technology and other sectors.

Amid the formal panels and scheduled business meetings, one subject has repeatedly found its way into our informal conversations: Nigeria’s proposed requirement that raw materials receive at least 30 per cent domestic value addition before export. I was amazed by how engaged the delegates were. They did not dispute the diagnosis behind the proposal. On the contrary, there was broad frustration with an economic structure in which Nigeria exports cocoa beans but imports branded chocolate; ships minerals abroad but purchases the machinery and industrial components produced from them; and supplies raw materials while employment, technology and processing margins accumulate elsewhere.

The desire to retain more value in Nigeria is real. It is not an abstract policy slogan. It is shared by entrepreneurs who want to manufacture, exporters who want to move up the value chain and professionals who understand the opportunities Nigeria loses when productive conversion happens elsewhere.

Yet the more we discussed the proposed legislation, the clearer the central question became:

Can Nigeria require value addition before it has built the factory, supplied the electricity, financed the machinery and secured the buyer?

The principle deserves support. The instrument requires careful design.

Breakfast and the cocoa question

Our breakfast conversation was particularly relevant in Belgium. Belgium occupies an important place in the international cocoa and chocolate economy. Nigerian cocoa enters European supply chains through ports, warehouses, traders and processors. Yet much of the highest commercial value is created after the commodity has left the producing country. Nobody around the table argued that this pattern should continue indefinitely.

But cocoa also illustrates why a universal percentage can create more questions than answers. What constitutes 30 per cent value addition? Is it measured by weight, production cost, market value or processing stage? Does fermenting, drying and grading cocoa qualify? Must beans be converted into liquor, butter or powder? Would finished chocolate be required? At which point has the statutory threshold been crossed?

The same difficulty appears across other commodities. Cutting and polishing a mineral is not equivalent to refining it into an industrial input. Processing sesame, cashew, timber or lithium requires different technologies, energy requirements, capital commitments and markets. A single percentage may offer political simplicity while producing commercial confusion.

My view, shared by several delegates, is that Nigeria needs commodity-specific value-chain assessments before imposing restrictions. For each product, the government should establish existing processing capacity, energy requirements, technology gaps, access to finance, viable markets and the time businesses will need to adjust. Thirty per cent may be achievable for one commodity, insufficiently ambitious for another and temporarily impractical for a third. Industrial policy must be bold enough to change behaviour but sophisticated enough to recognise different economic realities.

At lunch, electricity entered the conversation

By lunchtime, our conversation had moved from the legal requirement to the physical conditions of production. Factories do not run on legislation. Processing is energy-intensive. A Nigerian manufacturer operating with unreliable grid electricity and expensive self-generation may be legally required to add value but remain commercially unable to compete with a foreign processor enjoying dependable and cheaper power. This is not a theoretical concern.

Across Africa, governments are using export restrictions, tax incentives and access to mineral deposits to encourage local processing. Investors broadly understand the ambition. But they repeatedly identify affordable and dependable electricity as a decisive constraint. South Africa possesses enormous mineral reserves yet has lost much of its ferrochrome-processing capacity as electricity costs and reliability undermined competitiveness. Guinea has become a leading bauxite producer but will need several times its present electricity generation to realise its aluminium-processing ambitions.

The lesson for Nigeria is straightforward. For every commodity made subject to a processing obligation, the government should publish an accompanying industrial-capacity plan. It should address electricity, water, industrial land, transport, storage, waste management and access to the relevant technology. Otherwise, the policy would not create value addition. It would simply transfer Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit to producers and exporters. Power must precede prohibition.

The machinery still needs finance

Finance became the next subject. Domestic processing requires machinery, construction finance and working capital. Exporters must hold inventory through longer production cycles. Small farmers and artisanal producers need aggregation systems capable of delivering consistent volumes and quality. Yet the structure of Nigerian finance remains poorly suited to long-term industrial development.

A processor cannot sensibly finance machinery with short-term, high-cost credit. An international investor cannot price a twenty-year project if electricity tariffs, export rules or foreign-exchange arrangements may change after construction begins. The Federal Government has said that private capital should finance Nigeria’s next phase of growth rather than additional sovereign borrowing. That is a reasonable objective. But private investors will not finance industrial transformation merely because the government prefers private capital. They will require investable projects, appropriate finance, capable counterparties, predictable rules and credible routes to market.

Nigeria must therefore connect the value-addition proposal to credit guarantees, equipment leasing, development-finance facilities, export credit and blended-finance structures. The purpose should not be to subsidise factories indefinitely. It should be to bridge the difficult period between industrial ambition and commercially sustainable production. This is also where Belgian and Luxembourg institutions can contribute. Belgium brings industrial technology, logistics, commodity-market knowledge, and access to European buyers. Luxembourg brings expertise in investment funds, cross-border finance and structured capital. But those capabilities must be organised around real projects, not general expressions of interest.

Dinner and the danger facing primary producers

Our dinner discussion turned to the people most likely to be overlooked: farmers, miners and other primary producers. An export restriction introduced before domestic processors can absorb available production may reduce competition for raw materials. Farm-gate or mine-gate prices could fall. Large processors might gain access to captive supply while smaller producers lose the option of selling to foreign buyers. That would transform a policy presented as economic sovereignty into a transfer of income from primary producers to protected processors. Nigeria must not allow that to happen.

Before applying restrictions, the government should conduct transparent domestic-capacity tests. If local processors cannot purchase available production at commercially reasonable prices, producers should retain access to export markets. Independent monitoring should publish domestic processing capacity, utilisation rates, purchasing volumes, producer prices, and export demand. The purpose of value addition is to enlarge national income. It is not to redistribute existing income towards a small group of industrial beneficiaries.

My conversations with European counterparts

The responsibility does not rest with Nigeria alone. In my conversations with European counterparts during the forum, I have made the point that Europe cannot praise African industrialisation while preserving commercial arrangements that favour the importation of unprocessed African commodities. European buyers can support processing in Nigeria through long-term purchase agreements. Equipment manufacturers can provide training, maintenance and local assembly. Financial institutions can offer patient capital and risk-sharing. Importers and standards bodies can help Nigerian companies meet European safety, traceability and environmental requirements before new factories begin production.

Belgium is particularly relevant. Its ports, cocoa industry, commodity-trading networks, industrial engineering, and logistics capabilities connect directly to Nigerian value chains. However, a fair industrial partnership must go beyond selling European machinery into Nigeria. It should develop Nigerian suppliers, train engineers, transfer knowledge and guarantee meaningful market access for the processed products those factories eventually produce. Fair trade is not achieved merely when Africa processes more. It is achieved when African processed goods can enter valuable markets and compete on reasonable terms.

Not every factory must be national

Another point arising from our discussions concerned regional scale. Not every African country can efficiently process every commodity. Some industrial facilities require volumes, power and markets larger than one national economy can provide. AfCFTA should therefore form part of the value-addition architecture.

Nigeria could host facilities supplied partly by neighbouring producers. Another African country may develop specialist processing capacity serving Nigerian enterprises. Regional power pools, transport corridors, and harmonised standards can make investments viable where isolated national projects cannot. The objective should be African value addition. It should not be 54 countries attempting to reproduce every stage of every value chain. Economic sovereignty is strengthened through strategic interdependence, not industrial isolation.

The conversation after the forum

The engagement of our delegates has convinced me that Nigeria’s business community is ready for a serious value-addition conversation. These entrepreneurs are not asking to preserve an extractive economic model. Many want to manufacture, process and export higher-value goods. They understand that Nigeria cannot achieve prosperity by remaining principally a supplier of raw materials. But they also know from experience that ambition without infrastructure becomes another cost imposed on enterprise.

Nigeria’s proposed legislation begins with the correct diagnosis. Exporting unprocessed resources indefinitely will not create the jobs, technology, and productive capabilities the country needs. But diagnosis is not execution. A functioning value-addition strategy requires a complete conversion chain: Raw-material endowment, reliable power, processing technology, appropriate finance, skilled operators, competitive logistics, verified standards, committed buyers and measurable national value.

Break any link and the percentage mandate may become an obstacle rather than an industrial policy. Nigeria should therefore implement the proposed requirement gradually and commodity by commodity. It should publish capacity assessments, protect primary producers, provide realistic transition periods and connect export restrictions to measurable infrastructure and financing milestones.

As we break into two groups for company visits, one heading for Antwerp to take a tour around cocoa handling, warehousing, and logistics, and the other heading for Kortrijk to visit technology, innovation, and industrial hubs, I hope the Couch Conversation will be consistent. Success should not be measured by the volume of raw exports prevented. It should be measured by factories operating, workers trained, domestic suppliers developed, processed products exported, and national income increased. As our breakfast, lunch, and dinner conversations repeatedly reminded me, 30 per cent can be written into legislation. The factory, the electricity, the finance, and the market must still be built.

. Nweke is an International Trade Consultant and author of Economic Diplomacy of the Diaspora. A former Belgian politician of Nigerian origin, born in Igbuzo, Delta State, Nigeria, he was a 2014 candidate for Member of the European Parliament. A third-term Municipal Legislator at Ostend City Council, Belgium, since 2006, his portfolio included the Economy, Social Policy, Equality Affairs and International Development. Collins features regularly on TV Continental Lagos as Global Affairs Analyst, on Channels TV as Foreign Policy Commentator, on TRT World Istanbul as African Affairs Analyst, among other Afrocentric media houses, including BusinessDay Nigeria