Zimbabwean Farmers Get $4.5m Facility, May Arrive Next Week

Source from:  This Day (Lagos) July 23, 2004  07/26/2004

Zimbabwean farmers offered land in Nigeria plan to clinch a $4.5 million deal on Monday which will pave the way for the arrival of the country's first white settlers. "There are a few minor details we need to iron out but it looks like a done deal," Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) representative Alan Jack said from Harare yesterday. Zimbabwean farmers have been credited with reviving commercial agriculture in Zambia and Mozambique, prompting President Olusegun Obasanjo to court them. Although once a large net exporter of food, Nigeria's largely subsistence farming sector has been unable keep pace with its rapidly growing urban population. The country currently spends about $2.5 billion a year on food imports. Jack will leave for Nigeria with a team of lawyers this weekend, and plans to set up a CFU office there to facilitate the arrival of the first group of pioneers. The government will provide him with office space, equipment, and a car and driver. Eight Zimbabweans are expected to settle in Kwara state this year, but the government has budgeted for a further 10 in the first phase. The state has about 2.3 million hectares of unutilised agricultural land available. "If all goes well, the first guys will be coming up next week and we'll have the bush cleared in the next two months," said Jack, who already has plans drawn up for his house on the Niger. "Pity I forgot to ask for a jacuzzi," he joked. The gently sloping, riverside land is where Nigeria's first community of Zimbabweans will settle. "We have the results back from soil tests," said Jack. "It's perfect." Jack, who lost his tobacco and maize farm through Robert Mugabe's land reform programme, said more Zimbabwean farmers were expected to follow. "They're under a lot of pressure right now." Fewer than 400 white farmers remain on their land, compared with 4 500 in 1999. Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki opened talks with the CFU in February and within two months the first delegation of six farmers arrived. After being granted an audience with Obasanjo and finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, they became convinced their hosts meant business. Jack's second visit included two irrigation experts and involved inspecting the farms on offer and calculating how much money was needed to turn them into viable ventures. The deal now on the table includes a $250 000 government loan per farmer at a nominal interest rate, with another $250 000 guaranteed. Jack said double that amount was needed to get commercial farms off the ground. "We will need to start talking to commercial banks." The farmers will also be granted pioneer status, which means they'll be exempt from tax or import duties on farming equipment for five years, and be allowed to bring in key staff to train local workers. The governor has also pledged to build roads and houses and provide security and telecommunications. Despite preference by the Zimbabweans for freehold title, the government fears this would provide ammunition to political opponents and is offering bankable 99-year leases. The governor has also promised the contract would include a clause making it difficult for a future government to renege on promises or repossess the land. All land in Nigeria currently vests in the state. Some farmers had expressed concern at the violent clashes, some over land, between Christians and Muslims which have claimed hundreds of lives this year. But Kwara State has so far been spared conflagrations engulfing the volatile northern states. "They have been guaranteed nothing like that will happen here," said Nigel Crompton, representative of Kwara Saraki, speaking from the state capital Ilorin yesterday. The pioneers have also been assured no villagers would be resettled to accommodate their farms. Crompton said a cargo hub was being planned for Ilorin airport. Once completed, international flights will be diverted from Lagos airport, leaving empty cargo planes bound for Europe available to the Zimbabweans. Each pioneer will receive a 1 000 hectare farm suitable for mixed crops and dairy products for local consumption and cut flowers and vegetables for export. Large-scale planting is expected to commence early next year. Enditem