Nigeria welcomes exiled white Zimbabwean farmers March 25, 2004
President Olusegun Obasanjo has invited a group of white Zimbabwean farmers to settle in Nigeria after they lost their farms to Zimbabwe's controversial land reforms.
Mr Obasanjo said he hoped the exiles would encourage commercial-scale farming in Africa's most populous nation, one of the world's biggest importers of rice.
Hundreds of white Zimbabwean farmers have fled to other southern African countries since President Robert Mugabe began redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks in 2000, and Mr Obasanjo said they had had a positive impact on those economies.
"We don't want to take what is good for Zimbabwe away, but we don't want what is good for Africa to be taken away," he said in a statement.
The head of the 15-strong delegation, Alan Jack, said the Zimbabwean Government had destroyed their farms.
"We had to look for other parts of Africa where we can farm with government support, and luckily the Nigerian Government has pledged to support us," he said.
Mr Jack, who is also a member of the Commercial Farmers' Union of Zimbabwe, said the immigrants had chosen Kwara state in western Nigeria and Nasawara in the east to acquire land for rice and sugar farming.
Once southern Africa's bread basket, Zimbabwe now relies on aid to feed millions.
Nigeria had great potential for commercial agriculture, Mr Jack said, but lacked infrastructure and finance.
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