President Goodluck Jonathan

Determined to ensure that the Nigerian economy becomes less dependent on the oil and gas sector, President Goodluck Jonathan has said that agriculture holds a better promise in the march towards growing the economy than the oil and gas sector as it provides more employment as well as ensures food security.

Represented by Vice-President Namadi Sambo at a two-day stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Abuja Tuesday, the president said the pursuit of food security programme would ensure that a roadmap for the implementation of government programmes in the sector would be duly pursued.

Jonathan said the programme with the theme “Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL)”, was apt and assured Nigerians that most of the agriculture programmes were yielding the desired results.

“Commercial Agriculture Development Programme, FADAMA III, NERICA Rice Project and the IFAD-assisted community-based Natural Resource Management Development Programme and other programmes anchored by Federal Ministry of Agriculture have yielded some positive results. Sectoral analysis shows that on the average in the last five years, the agricultural sector contributed about 40 per cent to the GDP and provided 60 per cent of employment,” he said.

He however admitted that the desired overall result of the programme was yet to impact on the life of an average Nigerian which is the essence of the programme, by way of stopping the high cost of food importation to the country.

Reeling out statistics on the cost of importation of staple food items, he said the country spends N635.5 billion on wheat, N356.5 billion on rice, N217 billion on sugar and N96.9 billion on fish yearly which was not good for the economy as it continuously depletes the country’s external reserves. 

The president commended the CBN for the design of NIRSAL as it looked set to generate employment, create wealth and usher in the much expected good life for the country in accordance with the transformation agenda of the present administration.

To complement the gains in the agricultural sector, he said the administration was fixing the critical infrastructure needed for the total turn around, citing rehabilitation of the abandoned rail transport system and construction of new standard gauge across the country, complete irrigation projects and power as examples.

The CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who spoke at the occasion, said NIRSAL had a mechanism for the holistic transformation of the Nigerian agricultural landscape as a technical facility of N9.3 billion had been given out to build banks’ capacities to lend to farmers.

-ThisDay

Posted by admin on Jul 6 2011. Filed under Latest Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry