The Presidency dispatched a high-level delegation to Morocco on Wednesday to seal a partnership aimed at building Nigeria's first National Agro-Productivity System. Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Vice President, heads the team representing Vice President Kashim Shettima, who chairs the Presidential Food Systems Coordinating Unit.
Marion Moon, Technical Assistant on Agriculture to the President and Executive Secretary of the PFSCU, announced the mission in a statement on the government's push to strengthen Nigeria's agricultural intelligence capability. The delegation will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the OCP Africa and Ground Truth Analytics on Friday, July 17, 2026.
The shared geospatial intelligence platform will deliver real-time information to federal, state and local governments across the country. Data will cover crop locations, available land, yield forecasts and food security risks nationwide.
Moon stressed that the partnership signals a fundamental shift in how Nigeria approaches agricultural planning. "The future of agriculture depends not only on improved inputs, but equally on stronger intelligence," she said.
Through this arrangement, the country will build institutional capacity to plan better, respond quicker and make sharper decisions, Moon told reporters. She emphasized that the initiative reflects the federal government's dedication to stronger coordination among institutions working toward shared national priorities.
The PFSCU will oversee the National Agro-Productivity System under the National Agribusiness Policy Mechanism, which the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security has already approved. The initiative will give government timely insights into agricultural land availability, crop location, crop performance, growth stages and expected yields.
These insights will strengthen production planning, food security monitoring, agribusiness investment, early warning systems and policy development across the sector. Phase One involves a six-month pilot in three states focused on localizing the technology.
The pilot will include dataset calibration, ground-truthing and national capacity building activities. This groundwork will establish the technical and institutional foundations needed before nationwide rollout, Moon explained.
The Nigerian delegation will undertake technical engagements and institutional visits during the trip. These activities aim to strengthen national capacity and support implementation of the pilot phase.
The Nigeria-Morocco partnership emerges exactly three years after President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency on food security on July 13, 2023. Nigeria's food security crisis intensified in 2023 when removal of the petrol subsidy and unification of the naira exchange window triggered severe food inflation.
By early 2025, Nigeria's food inflation had surged past 40 per cent year-on-year, ranking among the world's highest. Rice, maize, tomatoes and cooking oil experienced the steepest price increases, pushing staple foods beyond the reach of millions of families.
