Nigeria Explores $100m Saudi Livestock Market ThroughNiger State
Nigeria has secured a major breakthrough in its non-oil export drive as Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago announced a $100 million livestock offtake agreement with the Saudi Export and Import Bank to supply meat and related products to the Middle East.
Bago, who made the disclosure at the FirstBank Agric and Export Expo 2025 in Lagos, said the deal marks a turning point for Nigeria’s agricultural exports and positions Niger State as a critical supplier in the global protein value chain.
“This is incredible. The Saudi government has given us an offtake agreement for $100 million,” Bago said.
The governor noted that the arrangement would begin with an initial tranche of $10m facilitated by the Nigerian Export and Import Bank (NEXIM).
According to Bago, the demand from Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Middle Eastern countries represents a $2.5 billion annual opportunity as the region seeks stable and high-volume sources for meat and animal by-products in the face of geopolitical and environmental disruptions in the Sahel and Sudan.
“This is not just about meat. The tripe, blood, skin, hooves, every part of the animal has value. We’re building the entire ecosystem,” the Niger governor stressed.
Bago also highlighted the support of Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in building an integrated supply and logistics chain to sustain the export drive.
Lagos, Nigeria’s largest consumer market, has already committed a ₦5bn offtake as part of a larger ₦500bn agricultural development agreement.
To further strengthen the
partnership, Bago pledged to allocate up to 100,000 hectares of farmland in Niger to support Lagos’ food supply needs.
“Not 20,000 hectares – I’m giving you 100,000 hectares. We’ll brand it ‘Lagos Farm’ and produce rice, yams, beans, livestock – anything you need,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu, in his remarks, emphasised the importance of Niger State’s vast arable land in ensuring national food security.
He also reaffirmed Lagos’s role as the commercial hub and logistics backbone of Nigeria’s agricultural economy.
“The land available in Niger is the size of four or five states combined. Governor Bago is helping us unlock 20,000 hectares for now, but we know the potential goes far beyond that,” the Lagos governor stated.
As part of the initiative, both states are advancing logistics modernisation.
Bago revealed that LNG-powered cold-chain trucks, supported by Lagos, will revolutionise meat distribution by replacing the transport of live animals with processed, frozen, and branded products.
“No more transporting live animals to Lagos. We’ll terminate every cow or goat at Mokwa, process them, and ship frozen meat directly to you. Just walk into Shoprite and pick the meat you want – all branded and properly packaged,” he said.
Bago also stressed the importance of value addition in agriculture, warning that reliance on raw commodity exports leaves nations “perpetually broke.”
He called on banks and financial institutions to support agro-industrial development with accessible and affordable finance.
“If you produce and just export, you’re at the mercy of global prices. But when you process, you set the price,” he noted.
FirstBank CEO, Olusegun Alebiosu, described the development as pivotal for Nigeria’s economic diversification agenda, affirming that agriculture is now central to the country’s growth strategy.
“Today, agriculture, once overlooked, is rightfully at the heart of our national development agenda,” Alebiosu said.
He said that the rebranded FirstBank Agric & Export Expo reflects the bank’s renewed commitment to positioning non-oil exports as a transformative force in Nigeria’s economy.
Sanwo-Olu, aligning with this view, praised the federal government’s efforts under President Bola Tinubu to strengthen non-oil exports, noting that the sector has recorded consistent quarterly growth over the past two years.
Nigeria Explores $100m Saudi Livestock Market ThroughNiger State is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
