Our parents climbed palm trees, harvested palm fruits and made a living from them.
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But they told us, “Go to school. Get a white-collar job. Don’t suffer like us.”
So we abandoned the farm for suits and office chairs.
Meanwhile, somebody somewhere was looking at our palm trees and seeing an industry.
Malaysia saw it. They took the opportunity and built an economy around palm oil.
Nigeria found crude oil and practically forgot the palm.
The palm tree didn't change.
We simply stopped seeing the gold.
And that is the real problem in Africa.
The resources are not hidden.
The knowledge of what to do with them is.
Crack the code.
This is one thing we need to start talking about more. We have plenty of resources, but we don't always know how to turn them into industries.
The palm tree is a good example. Something that looks ordinary to us can be a serious business opportunity when properly developed
Imagine if more young people learned modern palm farming, processing and marketing instead of believing farming is only for people who couldn't find jobs.
Our parents were not necessarily wrong to encourage education. The problem was that we started seeing agriculture as inferior to office work.
Malaysia's palm oil story should make African countries rethink how they approach agriculture.
Sometimes we don't lack resources. We lack the knowledge, technology and investment to exploit them properly.
Education should not make people hate farming. It should teach us how to make farming more productive and profitable.
The biggest lesson here is value addition. Don't just produce the raw material. Find out what else can be made from it.
We have been exporting raw materials for too long. Processing them locally is where much of the real opportunity lies.
The funny thing is that many people don't even realise how many products can come from the palm tree. This is why knowledge matters. Two people can look at the same farm and see completely different opportunities.
Crude oil changed Nigeria's priorities. Agriculture was suddenly treated like something we had already outgrown.
I agree with the point about information. Knowing that a resource exists is different from knowing how to build a profitable business around it.
The future should not be about choosing between farming and education. We need educated people bringing technology and business skills into farming.
If we can process more of our agricultural products locally, we can create jobs far beyond the farm itself.
The palm tree is only one example. There are many other resources sitting around African communities that we haven't properly commercialised.
We need to change the mindset that farming automatically means poverty. Farming with the right knowledge, scale and market can be a serious business.
The most provocative part is that the opportunity was right in front of us all along. We just didn't recognise its potential.
Instead of asking young people to run away from agriculture, we should teach them how to turn agriculture into a modern business.
Africa doesn't need to wait for another miracle resource. We already have plenty. The challenge is learning how to unlock their value.