The Federal Government announced the $500m Niger Delta Agricultural Investment Fund, a commercially managed vehicle to finance large-scale agricultural projects across the nine states of the region, with Vice President Kashim Shettima chairing its Board of Trustees. The fund formed part of the maiden Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Summit.
Managing Director of the NDDC, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, said the summit grew out of a retreat the commission held in Port Harcourt in October 2025, which brought together the commissioners for agriculture and food security from all nine mandate states. He explained that the fund was designed to finance opportunities across priority value chains, including palm oil, cassava, cocoa, rice, horticulture, marine resources and livestock.
Ogbuku disclosed that the NDDC recently provided N5bn to the Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce to support small agribusinesses in the region, explaining that the arrangement was designed to insulate the commission from political pressure and end the era of beneficiaries treating support as 'free government money'. He argued that the Niger Delta's strongest selling point was security, noting that the region was now one of the most secure parts of Nigeria.