The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to transform Nigeria’s agricultural financing system and launch the One Million Hectare Tree Crop Programme. The agreement, formalized at the UN House in Abuja, included the handover of ICT equipment to strengthen BOA’s institutional capacity and support the operationalization of the partnership.
UNDP Resident Representative Elsie Attafuah emphasized that Nigeria’s economic reforms must translate into tangible benefits for citizens, particularly through agriculture. She highlighted that food systems are the country’s largest employer and a key driver of economic stability, social cohesion, and inflation control. Attafuah underscored that the MoU is designed to rebuild Nigeria’s agricultural financing architecture, enabling BOA to mobilize climate finance, development funds, and private capital. She noted that success will be measured through functional investment pipelines, effective blended finance mechanisms, operational farmer registries, and measurable improvements in food security, rural incomes, exports, and jobs over the next two to three years.
BOA Managing Director Ayodeji Sotinrin reinforced that the partnership will be evaluated by outcomes rather than formalities, emphasizing the importance of expanding access to finance, increasing cultivated hectares, creating jobs, and generating foreign exchange from agricultural exports. He described the MoU as a vote of confidence in “BOA 2.0” and highlighted that the collaboration aims to deliver tangible transformation in rural communities and agricultural value chains.
Central to the partnership is the One Million Hectare Tree Crop Programme, a national initiative to cultivate economic tree crops such as cashew, oil palm, coffee, and rubber across Nigeria. The programme is commercially designed and nationally scaled, with implementation in phases starting with 200,000 hectares through nucleus estates and cooperatives, scaling to 400,000 hectares with processing centres, and ultimately reaching one million hectares integrated into export value chains and carbon credit systems. Seventy per cent of the initiative is allocated to commercial entities under performance-based concessions, while 30 per cent supports smallholders, schools, cooperatives, and members of the National Youth Service Corps.
The programme is expected to create over two million direct and indirect jobs, establish five national tree crop value chains, generate significant foreign exchange earnings, reforest degraded lands, and monetize carbon sequestration. Sotinrin called on commercial banks, impact investors, processors, and development partners to co-finance and support the initiative, ensuring that Nigeria’s agricultural transformation is inclusive, sustainable, and economically impactful.
