In 2007, USAID and IFPRI established the Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to help forge and implement the country’s rural development strategies. In 2013, an extensive analysis of the rice import tariff in Nigeria by NSSP, Policy Options for Accelerated Growth and Competitiveness of the Domestic Rice Economy in Nigeria, found that higher tariffs did not stimulate local production or help the country reach self-sufficiency in rice, but did increase smuggling. This evidence informed discussions about the tariff that led to the government’s decision to lower the tariff from 110 percent to 60 percent.
NSSP has helped Nigeria make headway in increasing investment toward inclusive agriculture-led growth. In 2013, Nigeria was admitted into the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition—an initiative that came out of the G8 commitment to catalyze private-sector investment in African agriculture. NSSP led a team that developed a policy matrix that was incorporated into Nigeria’s New Alliance Cooperation Framework, which facilitated the country’s admission into the initiative. Under the New Alliance, development partners have committed to investing about US$500 million into Nigeria’s agriculture sector from 2013 to 2016.
