By Emmanuel Awari-Jalingo
The Nigerian Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Clem Ikanade has disclosed that inspite the challenges as a result of COVID 19 pandemic, the Country still remains the largest and most populous country in Africa.
He made the disclosure at the 12th community of Practice meeting of Commissioners of Budget and Planning held in jalingo.
He said that the theme of this meeting: “Beyond Oil: Optimizing Agro-Value Chain for Economic Prosperity at the National and Sub-national Levels” is quite germane, considering the focus of the present administration on diversification of the economy, job creation and value addition in the agricultural sector. I am also aware that Taraba State, being the host State, has made giant strides in agricultural revolution and hence, the choice of this Meeting in Taraba State was inspirational.
“It gives me joy to learn that most States of the Federation have yielded to this advice and have put in place measures to unearth alternative revenue sources to complement the dwindling income from Federation Account which was mostly affected by the decline in oil revenue as a result of Covid-19 and global downturn of the economy”
” You would agree with me that the agricultural sector has greater potential to address the nation’s problems of unemployment, acute poverty, and hunger, hence, the reason why the Federal Government had committed much resources to revamp the sector”.
He said that number of interventions put in place by the Federal Government to promote non-oil revenue.
“The ongoing Zero-Oil Economy plan puts credence to this assertion. The Zero-Oil Economy Plan when finalized would be adopted as a national Agenda to further diversify Nigeria’s export away from crude oil.”
” The plan amongst others, is to add at least US$150 Billion to the country’s foreign reserves cumulatively from non-oil exports over the next ten years; create at least 500,000 additional export linked jobs annually due principally to increase in productive export activities; lift at least ten million Nigerians out of poverty and empower each State and its people by integrating them into the export value chain. This effort/initiatives, therefore, would unlock the potentials of each State in the development and promotion of at least one crop for export” – he said.
“All of this points up the need for concentric diversification strategies especially in agriculture that can deliver sustained, job intensive and inclusive growth. This will require production and export of range of products for overseas markets to earn foreign exchange by unlocking agriculture value chain. Agricultural value chain might include: development and dissemination of plant and animal genetic material, input supply, farmer organization, farm production, post-harvest handling, processing, provision of technologies of production and handling, grading criteria and facilities, cooling and packing technologies, post-harvest local processing, industrial processing, storage, transport, finance, and feedback from markets”.
According to him,N2.3 trillion Economic Sustainability plan put in place by the Federal Government of Nigeria to address the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic is some stimulus package to agriculture, adding that these packages consist to a large extent, of a combination of fiscal and monetary policies, sectoral interventions, and social programmes.
He said fiscal and monetary policies are supporting support States, businesses, households and individuals through grants, tax relief, payroll support, tariff reductions, and direct support to the health sector, saying that the sector interventions are focusing on Mass Agriculture, Mass Housing, Public Works, Off-grid Solar Power Installations and support to small businesses.
“A common feature of these interventions is that they will create a large number of jobs, empower farmers and entrepreneurs, use up to 100% of local materials, conserve foreign exchange and have guaranteed offtake of outputs especially in Agriculture and Housing”.
“We have started executing the construction of 347km rural roads connecting approximately 266 communities nationwide”.
“These Rural Road on agro corridor will facilitate transportation of agricultural product to markets, reduce post harvest losses, encourage investment of value adding industries for processing and storage of farm products, lower product cost, discourage rural urban migration, reduce urban slums and improve security”.
“We are also building Rail Infrastructure across the country to provide relief to our road Infrastructure, Federal Road Management Agency (FERMA) is currently rehabilitating 195 roads sections and bridges across the Federation to reduce travel time and transportation cost. This will protect and create additional jobs”.
“We are also taking steps to increase our non-oil revenue generation. These steps include but not limited to VAT reforms in the Finance Act 2020 (maintaining the increase in VAT rate to 7.5%), Customs Administration Enhancement, Tax incentives and exemptions, increase remittances and recovery of unremitted revenues from GOEs, increase revenues from cross-border business transactions, unlock value from FG assets that are lying idle or under-utilised, etc, Most importantly, we eat what we produce and produce what we eat”.
“In spite of the COVID-19 challenges, Nigeria is the largest economy and most populous country in Africa with an estimated population of more than 200 million, which is expected to grow to 411 million by 2050 and become the third most populous country in the world after China and India. The country’s middle class of roughly 50 million people is expected to help grow the country into one of the top-twenty global economies by 2050. These statistics shows that Nigeria has enormous potential and opportunities ahead of it”.
He disclosed that Nigeria will continue to provide the enabling environment for business to thrive.
” Let me reassure you once more that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is interested in attracting and supporting investment and partnership in Nigeria”
“The government is creating an enabling macroeconomic environment by eliminating barriers and putting in place many incentives to attract investments.
“In addition to incentives in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), we have various policy measures to enhance the enabling environment and ensure good governance/transparency since assumption of office. The Treasury Single Account (TSA) application, Tax Reform, development of Anti-Corruption Strategy 2017 – 2021 and the Presidential Initiative on Ease of Doing Business readily come to mind.’
In his remarks, Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, called for more intervention in the agricultural sector by development partners and other stakeholders in order to truly revive and diversify the nation’s economy.
Ishaku made the call on Wednesday at the Community of Practice meeting held in Jalingo.
He said that the dependence on only oil as the mainstay of the economy over the years had negatively affected the system.
He also said that the only way to revive and diversify the nation’s economy was for development partners and other stakeholders to intervene in the sector.
According to him, the economy is susceptible to a lot of challenges that could have been prevented if other sectors of the economy are developed.
The governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Haruna Manu, said his administration was already making huge investment in the sector, stressing that the visitors should explore investment opportunities in the enormous potential in agriculture, tourism and mining in the state.
“The management of oil revenue has over the years proven ineffective in driving the much-needed development.
“It has therefore become imperative for all of us to look for ways of diversifying the economy in order to stay afloat in the ever changing world.
“With the current global reality, we must embrace alternative income sources both as a nation and component states, especially in the areas of agriculture, mining and tourism.
“Taraba State is blessed with limitless opportunities in these sectors.
“You will discover in the course of your meeting that the vast fertile land, diverse climatic conditions and massive active workforce in the state have made it a perfect hub for investment in the key sectors of agriculture, mining and tourism,” he said.
He said that nearly every crop was being cultivated in the state such as tea, coffee, apple, avocado, sesame seeds, yams, cassava, maize, soybeans, plantains and banana.
“Consequently, my administration has made it a top priority to empower our people to go into mechanised agriculture by providing farm inputs and improved seedlings and other incentives to our farmers.
“We are already in touch with relevant agencies and the private sector to boost the processing of some of these products at the home front. Our potential in rice production is probably second to none.
“That is why I consider this meeting as not only timely but also very crucial. At the end of your meeting, I hope that you will return to your various states with the zeal to begin serious work toward investing in the potential that our dear state offers,’’ Ishaku said.
Earlier, the State commissioner of Budget and Planning, Mr Solomon Elisha, said community of practice “is a forum where state Commissioners of budget and planning meet to enhance their capabilities in performing planning and budgeting functions”.
Elisha said the meeting with the theme: ‘Beyond Oil: Optimising Agro Value Chain for Economic Prosperity at the National and Sub-national Levels of Post COVID-19’ drew participants from the 36 states of the federation and offices of budget and planning and other critical stakeholders in the sector, as well as development partners.
Also speaking, the state Commissioner of Information and Re – Orientation, Danjuma Adamu informing participants that Taraba State is blessed with abundant and fertile agricultural lands suitable for the cultivation of a variety of crops which include yam, cassava, rice, maize and fruit crops.
“Its many rivers also contain different species of fish, making it truly a leading agricultural state. Its vast mineral resources is added spur for development.
” As an agrarian state, agriculture is and continue to play vital role in the economy of the state”.
“Taraba State equally ranks one of the pace-setters in the area of tourism. Some of the outstanding tourist attractions include the Mambilla Plateau which has a beautiful landscape of valleys and waterfalls. The Plateau stands at over 1, 830 metres above sea level, making it the highest peak in Nigeria. It temperate climate makes it a suitable place for tourists around the world, especially those from Europe and North America”
“With its lush green vegetation, it is condusive for animal rearing, especially cattle, and suitable for cultivation of crops such as tea, peer and other tree crops. The state also has many waterfalls, which are sites for tourists, the most famous is the Barup waterfalls.The Gashaka/Gumti National Park is another landmark in the area of tourism in Taraba State. Its unique position is underlined by the undisputable fact that it is not only the largest of all the eight National Parks in the country, but also the most diverse in terms of species in the whole of West Africa, harbouring rare animals like the Columbus monkey and warthogs. Worthy of mention are other famous tourist attractions in the State. They include the Marmara pond of Wukari, headquarters of Wukari local government area and the Bitako Hills located in Zing local government area. In the area of minerals, Taraba is also blessed with some much sought after minerals such as gold, zinc, gemstones, uranium, bauxite, barites and hydrocarbons among others”.
He urge participants to also look at the abundant and untapped resources that Taraba State offers and the need to draw the attention of the Federal Government towards harnessing these potentials for the overall development of the State and the country at large.
Nasarawa Reporters 