By RARZACK OLAEGBE
Plant cassava this Christmas. Before the next Christmas, you would reap a bountiful harvest. You might choose maize. Maize does it in 90 days. Cassava is ready in 6 to 12 months. Besides, cassava has many derivatives. For instance, ethanol. It is a solvent. It gives you alcoholic beverage drinks. It is for the production of paints. Cosmetics. Pharmaceuticals. You can export some of these items. Earn foreign exchange. The export business will push you into the global market. The global market makes you earn more.
On the one hand
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced last week that Nigeria’s gross domestic product grew by 3.98 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms in the third quarter of 2025. Cassava, maize and other agricultural products – or the non-oil economy – drove this performance.
On the other hand
The cassava economy has contributed over 31 per cent of the national output. The data highlights a gradual structural shift from over-reliance on crude oil. Now, agriculture – cassava, maize, mango, and cinnamon, et al – has emerged as the main engine of growth.
In the long term
Agriculture has brought over 31 per cent of the real gross domestic product. Meanwhile, telecommunications and information services [including fintech], a key driver of the digital economy, brought a paltry 7.67 per cent to the table. Here is why. The technology market is small. We have many fintech firms providing financial services across the nation. We have millions of point-of-sale machines. We have millions of smartphones and computers. We do not manufacture these gadgets. We do not sell the devices. We are merely consuming the technology. We do not build or process the technology for export.
Meanwhile, we export cocoa, cassava, cinnamon, and hibiscus flowers in tons. If you have enjoyed the zobo drink, you have eaten the hibiscus flowers. These non-oil export products have contributed more to the GDP than telecoms and fintech. That is what the data from the NBS has shown. I am not disparaging the importance and contributions of telecom and fintech in the scheme. No. Fintech has moved the envelope. Extended the frontier. Helped to stabilise the financial ecosystem. Promoted the financial inclusion agenda of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Brought many unbanked Nigerians into the formal financial system. The telecoms? Aha, I will not overemphasise its importance.
Some stakeholders in the non-oil export business rely on the ingenuity of the various fintech firms and telecoms to transfer funds and repatriate their funds. Some have even used fintech as escrow accounts in countries where the trust level is waning among trading partners. Fintech has added finesse to our payment infrastructure. Telecoms have raised the ante. As you are planning for 2026, plant cassava. It is easy. Besides, the agriculture sector will enjoy a five-year tax holiday from 2026.
In the short term
This Christmas, I will consider planting a coconut. Please, do not ask me why.
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