NALDA's Renewed Hope Mega Farms Can Lift 100,000 Nigerians Out of Poverty

News in Brief

-NALDA boasts of the Renewed Hope Mega Farms estate's potential to create 42,000 jobs and lift 100,000 Nigerians out of poverty.

-The project adopts innovative large-scale mechanised farming and sustainable agroforestry in alignment with Nigeria’s climate commitments.

The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has touted the socioeconomic potential of its ongoing Renewed Hope Mega Farms estates in Kwara and Ekiti. According to the agency's executive secretary, Cornelius Adebayo, it is expected to create 12,000 direct jobs, 30,000 indirect jobs and lift 100,000 Nigerians out of poverty.

In his statement, Adebayo said the initiative is one of the organisation’s flagship projects under President Bola Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda. Already, there are pioneer estates of over 1,200 hectares and 1,050 hectares under cultivation in Ekiti and Kwara.

These estates are large-scale agricultural settlements covering between 5,000 and 25,000 hectares. Each farmer is allocated five hectares of farmland, enabling them to earn sustainable agricultural income while also benefiting from a share of carbon credit revenues generated through structured tree-planting and estate-wide reforestation.

Socio-economic Reform for Empowerment

According to Adebayo, the agency’s carbon-credit initiative is not only a climate solution but also a socio-economic reform that empowers farmers. 

“Our goal is to move Nigerians from a low-income bracket to a true middle-class economy. By combining agricultural productivity with carbon credit earning, farmers can become independent, prosperous and globally competitive. These estates are fully mechanised, equipped with complete infrastructure such as roads, irrigation systems, processing hubs, housing, and energy systems to function as full agricultural settlements,” he stated.

Adebayo further revealed that, as part of their sustainability framework, each estate will receive comprehensive perimeter fencing, along with support to plant thousands of climate-resilient trees capable of generating significant carbon credits over time.

Expanding Nigeria's Global Climate Solutions

NALDA held a side event at the CoP30 and MoU signing ceremony in Belem. This event provided a platform for Nigeria to share its contributions to global climate solutions, exchange knowledge with partners and strengthen collaboration on nature-based approaches that support mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable land use.

The executive secretary explained that the agency's operational mandate was expanded to directly align with Nigeria’s climate commitments by integrating afforestation, reforestation, sustainable land management, and biodiversity enhancement into its plantation programmes.

Its plantations across different ecological zones represented one of the most promising nature-based climate assets in Nigeria.

“They hold the potential to generate high-integrity carbon removals, attract climate finance, and empower thousands of young people and rural farmers. Our presence at CoP30 is to spotlight these transformational efforts and outline the ambitious NALDA Plantation Carbon Roadmap,” he said.