Entrepreneur and agri-investor Ada Osakwe has warned that Nigeria’s food insecurity has reached a critical and foreseeable breaking point, insisting that the country should have declared a national emergency on hunger “about 10 years ago.”
Speaking during an interview with Arise News on Saturday, Osakwe said Nigeria cannot afford to ignore the latest United Nations early-warning report, which projects that 34 million Nigerians could face severe food insecurity during the June–August 2026 lean season.
She described the finding as the clearest sign yet that the country must embrace rapid and transformative reforms across agriculture, nutrition, and food systems.
Osakwe said the UN projection reinforced long-standing alarm bells that went unheeded.
“Absolutely, we should have been declaring a state of emergency maybe ten years ago.
“The UN has now given government more than enough early-warning signals.
”Yes, investments are going into agriculture, but the work ahead is much bigger, ” she said.
She identified weak infrastructure and low yields as the most immediate barriers, stressing that only a massive overhaul can prevent deeper hunger crises.
For Osakwe, Nigeria’s biggest gap is the absence of large-scale agricultural infrastructure.
“The first thing, I would say, is massive infrastructure investment in food.
“We need to ramp up irrigation so farmers can plant all year round. We need processing, we need storage all these determine yields,” Osakwe said.
She warned that without proper irrigation, Nigeria cannot withstand drought cycles intensified by climate change.
Osakwe argued that the hunger crisis is not merely about producing enough food but about ensuring it is nutritious.
“It’s not just about having food; it needs to be nutritious.
“We have some of the highest malnutrition rates in Africa. Over half of our children are either stunted or wasted, especially in the North.”
She said improved access to micronutrients for mothers and infants would dramatically enhance developmental outcomes.
Osakwe criticised Nigeria’s growing reliance on imported food, warning that the habit undermined both national security and local production.
“We will remain food-insecure if we keep spending billions importing food we should be growing locally,” she said.
Osakwe noted that up to 60 per cent of fruits and vegetables produced in Nigeria are lost post-harvest, a crisis she believes could be solved with proper cold-storage systems.
“If we simply have conditioned warehouses and temperature-controlled trucks moving produce from farm belts to major markets, it changes the entire game,” she said.
While acknowledging government efforts to revive strategic grain reserves through private-sector partnerships, Osakwe said the agricultural industry would only scale when investors are convinced it is profitable.
“The private sector continues to be the main implementer.
“It wants to see returns, that’s why it ensures systems work.
”There’s still capital in the system, but we have to prove the bankability of agriculture, ” Osakwe said.
She noted that more banks now operate agriculture desks, while agri-tech firms and export-focused processors are gaining ground.
“This isn’t charity. There’s money to be made , but models must be profitable and transparent, ” she said.
Reflecting on the decade since she served in the Ministry of Agriculture, Osakwe said there has been progress but “huge gaps” remain.
“We’ve seen more entrepreneurs, more bankable projects, more funding including for women-owned processors.
“But young entrepreneurs still struggle with export certification. These barriers limit Nigeria’s share of the global marketplace, ” she said.
On climate change, Osakwe highlighted the need to strengthen early-warning systems, but urged Nigerians to embrace indigenous, climate-resilient crops.
“Some of our local crops like acha and fonio are drought-resistant.
”We use them at Nuli, and even in our restaurant in the U.S. Sometimes the solution isn’t abroad, it’s right here, ” she added.
She argued that promoting such crops nationally could help Nigeria boost food security while adapting to climate shocks.
