Entangled, since the fall in oil prices in 2016, in an economic crisis that has been further aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Africa’s most populous country must diversify its economy and create jobs for its more than 200 million inhabitants.
As Africa’s largest oil producer and the continent’s largest economy in terms of GDP, Nigeria has decided to invest massively in palm oil, of which it was the world’s leading producer in the 1960s.
Now the world’s fifth largest producer, it imports nearly half of the two million tons consumed annually in the country, further depleting foreign exchange reserves already depleted by falling oil prices.
But farmers complain that they do not benefit from the loans the government provides through the central bank to large farms and investors. The palm oil industry has come under fire around the world for contributing to deforestation and the loss of community land. But its supporters say it contributes to local development and creates jobs.
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Data source: wionews