Look at what Nigerians spend money on every single day, food.

And we’re not talking about a small market.

Nigeria still imports huge amounts of food, while Nigerian agricultural products are also being sold to markets outside the country.

In 2025 alone, Nigeria exported about $1.99 billion worth of cocoa, $456.9 million of cashew and $300.3 million of sesame.

So yes, there is money in agriculture.

But here is where it gets interesting.

You don’t necessarily have to be the person planting the crop.

Think about what happens around the farmer.

Farmers need seeds, fertiliser, equipment and other supplies before they can produce anything.

Once they harvest, somebody has to buy the produce.

That buyer may collect from hundreds of farmers and supply a larger company, processor or market.

Then somebody has to move the produce from the farm to where it is needed.

Somebody has to store it.

Somebody has to process it.

Somebody has to package it.

And somebody has to connect it to the final buyer.

Every one of those gaps is an opportunity to build a business.

And this is where I think people sometimes misunderstand agriculture.

They hear “agriculture” and immediately think, farming.

But farming is only one part of the business.

There is an opportunity in supplying farmers.

There is an opportunity in buying and aggregating produce.

There is an opportunity in storage and transportation.

There is an opportunity in processing and packaging.

There is an opportunity in connecting farmers with large, reliable buyers.

There is even an opportunity in helping Nigerian agricultural products reach international markets.

And these aren't hypothetical problems.

They are problems businesses are already spending money to solve.

Nigeria's new $500 million World Bank-backed agricultural programme, for example, is specifically designed to strengthen these connections between farmers, businesses, processors and buyers, with the expectation of attracting another $220 million in private investment.

So when you're thinking about agriculture, don't only ask

What can I farm?

Ask

What is currently difficult, expensive or inefficient in this industry, and can I build a business that solves it?

Because that is where things get interesting.

The opportunity may be on the farm.

But it may also be everything happening around the farm.

And in a country where millions of people need food every single day, that is a market worth paying attention to.