The Federal Government on Monday flagged-off the distribution of 2,000 tractors to beneficiaries in the first phase of the Nigeria Agriculture Mechanisation Programme, marking a major step in its push to improve food production and modernise farming across the country.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, performed the flag-off in Sheda, Abuja. He described the event as “the largest single agriculture mechanisation programme ever undertaken on the African continent.”
The rollout follows the launch in July 2025 when President Bola Tinubu introduced 2,000 units of high-quality tractors fully equipped with trailers, plows, harrows, sprayers, and planters. The President also launched 10 state-of-the-art combined harvesters, 12 fully equipped mobile workshops, and 50 bulldozers for agricultural land development.
Other equipment commissioned under the Renewed Hope Mechanisation programme included over 9,000 complimentary implements and sets of spare parts.
At the launch in Abuja, Tinubu said the programme was designed to cultivate over 550,000 hectares of farmland, generate more than two million metric tons of staple food, create over 16,000 jobs, and directly benefit more than 550,000 farming households across all six geo-political zones in Nigeria.
He reiterated his administration’s commitment to achieving food security through the deployment of agricultural mechanisation nationwide.
Seven months after the initial launch, the government began distributing the tractors to beneficiaries drawn from the six geo-political zones.
Kyari said the tractor rollout marked the ignition of the National Agricultural Productivity Revolution and signaled the end of the long era of low tractor density in Nigeria.
According to him, “Through the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme, we are deploying 2,000 heavy capacity tractors and over 9,000 precision implements under engineered national framework.
“This first tranche of 600 tractors marked the beginning of a phased acceleration.
“This will be followed by 750 tractors and 650 tractors, culminating in the nationwide force of 2,000 mechanisation assets.”
The Minister revealed that over 100,000 applications were received for the first phase alone, showing what he described as confidence in the leadership of the Tinubu administration.
On the distribution model, Kyari explained that the tractors were not given for private ownership but to service providers to ensure proper use.
He said, “In line with Mr. President’s vision that scale must drive impact, these tractors are not distributed for private ownership.
“They are entrusted to mechanisation service providers where each tractor with the capacity to service approximately 600 hectares per year, becomes not just a machine but a multiplier of productivity.
“Many of these MMSPs are used on women-led enterprises, operating under a lease-owned model. This is not just about 2,000 beneficiaries.
“It is about 1.2 million farmers across over 1.5 million hectares annually. It is about national food sovereignty. Beyond procurement and sustainability lies the structure.”
Speaking on management and financing, Kyari said the Bank of Agriculture in collaboration of Hiefer International would oversee structured financing models.
He explained that the arrangement would include leasing higher approaches, service aggregation, and performance-based access systems designed to guarantee equitable access, financial discipline, asset sustainability, and measurable development impact.
He assured that the tractors would not sit idle but would work actively to increase productivity nationwide.
On maintenance, the Minister stated, “Let me also inform you that each tractor deployed today comes with two years of free service support.
“We are institutionalising maintenance culture, generating fast replacement, asset longevity, and discipline performance management, because mechanisation without maintenance is expenditure. Mechanisation with maintenance is investment.
“Furthermore, we are deploying 36 mobile service shops for rapid first-line technical response.
“We are constructing seven mega mechanisation service centres strategically across the nation, and we are catalysing the establishment of one mega tractor assembly plant capable of producing between 2,000 and 4,000 tractors annually. We are not import dependent.”
In his remarks, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Sabi Aliyu Abdullahi, assured that all eligible beneficiaries would receive tractors and that no one would be marginalised.
Abdullahi also noted that measures had been put in place to ensure sustainability of the agriculture mechanisation programme, particularly in the area of maintenance and long-term use of the tractors across the country.
