Church of Nigeria Challenged on Agricultural Development
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Lagos, October 14, 2005- The Church was urged by Chief Audu Ogbeh former Chairman of Nigeria's ruling political party to set up agriculture based NGOs to assist farmers generate more income.
Abp. Akinola and Chief Ogbeh at the seminar.
Ogbeh made the call in Lagos in a paper entitled Agricultural Opportunities, which he delivered at the economic empowerment seminar organised by the Anglican Church, from October 10-14.
The seminar was aimed at strengthening the ability of the Church to combat poverty towards achieving the goals of the Nigerian church to be self-sustaining and financing. According to him, the NGO’s would enable the Church to access support from interested donors oriented to agricultural development among small and medium scale entrepreneurs.
Reducing poverty is one of the cardinal missions of the Church, but lack of adequate funds have stagnated some pilot projects initiated by some dioceses to empower low income earners.
“The Church can take life back to the rural areas by paying attention to micro, small and medium scale enterprises,” he said.
The former PDP boss added that the Church as an embodiment of Christ must lead the empowerment of the individual.
He said that President Olusegun Obasanjo more than any other Nigerian leader in the last 20 years, had paid great attention to agricultural development and the church can take advantage of such developments.
“The problem is that the state governors are not responding enough,” he observed and identified inconsistency in government policy, poor seed quality, and outrageous bank rates as factors militating against agricultural production in the country.
Primate of the Church, the Most Rev Peter Akinola has often said that the growth of the Nigerian Church as one of the largest concentration of Anglicans worldwide demanded that she led the war against poverty.
In Abuja, where he is Bishop, the Church has ventures in Education and hospitality ventures, which employs more than 300 people. The income generated from the ventures has drastically reduced the assessment paid by Churches.
Discussions at the 5-day seminar centred on the need for the church to embark on Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) and how such could access funds from financial institutions for effectiveness.
