The State State of the African Diaspora (SOAD) says it plans to create an agribusiness commodity exchange aimed at helping farmers in the country.
The Roving Ambassador for SOAD, Mr Dele Ajayi-Smith, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.
The SOAD is an entity that has one goal : to reinforce Africa through the Diaspora, and the Diaspora through Africa.
It was launched during the Summit of the African Union, in 2018, in Mauritania.
It came after the elected President of the African Union, in 2014, gave a mandate to Dr Louis-Georges Tin, chairperson of the French Black Organisation (CRAN), to create a structure for the African Diaspora.
It is a group of more than 350 million inhabitants in the world, some of whom left Africa a few years ago as migrants, while others left the continent as slaves as they were deported several centuries ago.
Ajayi-Smith said that the creation of an agribusiness commodity exchange would help in creating a direct channel to farming equipment for farmers in the country.
He noted that it would help in strengthening the agricultural sector in the country and provide a platform for networking amongst farmers.
“We intend to create a pan revolutionary agribusiness commodity exchange that will stand out the continent and make it a force to go alongside with other powerful nations like America, China and India.
“This would help create a buying mechanism for solidarity; for example, if there is drought in any of the African country, there will be solidarity to have enough commodity exchange from other African countries for what is lacking in that troubled nation.
“We would develop and operate Pan-African Commodity Exchange Commission which will bring a huge strength to all the African countries including Nigeria.”
“This in turn would help to strengthen the agricultural sector in the country, in which farmers would have easy access to vital agricultural equipment and would improve the sector,” he said
Ajayi-Smith noted that SOAD intends to change the climate for farmers in order to ensure that the latter have access to pensions and other benefits.
He noted that training and orientation programmes would be carried out so as to build and create long term goals for the farmers and their families.
“We are committed in that farmers who are registered under this platform would have pension worked out for them, to enjoy the best of security, especially in their old age.
“Also, education, training and scholarship would be speedily worked out for their children to empower them to remain actively participating in farming business for food security, industrialisation and provision of raw materials for the country.
“Fair trade would be strengthened across the country to encourage farmers and their continuity in farming business.” he said.
He appealed to the Federal Government to support and acknowledge its activities, as it plans to assist in the quest to find solutions to developmental challenges facing the country.
