The Tinubu-led government will encourage banks to engage much more in the provision of affordable consumer loans for automobiles and expensive domestic appliances. A certain portion of bank lending must be earmarked for the consumer.
All non-compliant banks will pay a penalty to the government. Compliant banks will be entitled to tax breaks and credits as well as favourable treatment by the CBN regarding inter-bank transactions and other monetary policy ratios.
“In conjunction with the National Assembly and state governments, we will revise the Land Use Act. We need to streamline and rationalize the land conveyance process. In this way, we lower costs and delays and promote more efficient use of land. This more efficient allocation will bolster the housing industry and lower costs for investors and consumers.
Working with state governments, we will provide credits and incentives to developers of housing projects that set aside a significant portion of their projects to affordable housing. With the support of state and local governments, we aim to establish and implement a new social housing policy whose objective shall be to provide pathways for the poorest Nigerians to climb onto the housing ladder.
We shall phase out fuel subsidy yet maintain the underlying social contract between the government and the people
We will establish a coherent federal program to provide eligible and meritorious civil servants with payment guarantees for fixed-rate, long term mortgages for their homes”, he said.
The new government shall introduce commodity boards to establish minimum prices for strategic crops such as cashew, cocoa, sesame, soya, cassava, yam, okra, palm kernels and groundnut. This will guarantee minimum incomes for farmers, improve certainty and increase their capacity to produce more of the staples needed to sustain our nation’s growing population; we will also seek to deepen the use of commodity exchanges and strengthen their operations in order to ensure even greater transparency and stability, the president-elect said.
According to him, we will modernise and expand agricultural production and enhance our strategic grain reserves to strengthen this line of defence against food shortage and enable us to maintain stable prices for our most important staples.
We shall also work with state and local governments (through the establishment of another incentive-based Federal Government funding program) to construct fresh produce storage facilities in major marketplaces of major cities and towns to minimize waste and better preserve perishable food items.
The new government, according to Tiunubu, will build farm-to-market roads and access, while freight networks will be priorities for the administration, and an irrigation programme to be known as Irrigate Nigeria Project is expected to boost food production and employment while helping to mitigate harmful effects of extreme weather cycles and climate change. In addition, participation in the project will support domestic farmers, produce off take guarantees, link farmers to markets and food processing plants.
The governance and structure of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) will be reformed to enable the bank to fulfil its core mandate to provide farmers with access to low-cost loans. BOA loans will be strictly limited to farm-related investments, shall be primarily directed towards the growth of strategically important crops, and shall be carefully monitored. Farmers’ cooperative and large scale shall be encouraged.
On power generation and transmission, the new government which will have many technocrats as players “will immediately take the necessary steps to ensure that more of the power we already generate can be transmitted and distributed to Nigerian homes and businesses. Implement further reforms in the power sector, while of-grid and renewable power generation options and solutions undertaken by willing private sector participants will also be encouraged.
We will end the unpopular and harmful practice of estimated billing and ensure that all electricity bills are meter-based. New connections will not be permitted to energize from the grid unless a meter has been installed. We will further enable DisCos to charge cost-reflective tariffs for electricity supply, while local manufacturing of meters will be encouraged.
Our solar energy plan will focus on all major parts of the power value chain to ensure that we take advantage of all that solar power has to offer in terms of generating , transmitting and distributing power across the country. In the upstream sector, we shall focus on grid connectedness while also taking advantage of mini-grid and rural electrification.
We will streamline and relax regulation to enable private sector, local and state government actors to electrify rural Nigeria in a safe and secure manner with reasonable tariffs. We will encourage universities and polytechnics to become centres of research, devising new and innovative ways to bring more power to rural areas”.
The new government, which it was will draw from the best of brains across the country, will work with the National Assembly to review the Electric Sector Reform Act 2005, and expand the existing regime for off-grid power generation and explore new ways to exploit clean coal, solar, hydro and other sustainable energy technologies.
“We will introduce a Nigeria First policy by which gas resources shall be directed, as a #1 priority to Nigerian power generation. We will, in addition, support power projects that can be delivered quickly to optimize grid reliability, grid interconnectedness and grid wheeling, he promised.
In the oil and gas sector, Tinubu promised to focus on creating an industry which successfully utilizes, takes advantage of high oil prices to generate necessary income for successful diversification and ensures self-sufficiency in meeting demand for petroleum products and eliminating periods of scarcity; increase crude oil production to 2.6mmbpd by 2027 and 4mmbpd by 2030.
“To increase domestic oil production, we must have greater success in deterring crude oil theft and preventing vandalism of our pipelines, crude infrastructure and assets. Therefore, we will establish a Special Enforcement and Monitoring Unit whose sole mandate will be to protect the nation’s pipelines by deploying technological interventions (stationary aerial monitoring platforms, drones) towards curbing production disruptions.
“In addition, we will provide new incentives to boost investment in the sector. We shall focus more investment on frontier oil and gas exploration, particularly in as yet untapped parts of the country. We shall increase indigenous participation and host community development.
“We will fully implement the Host Community Development Trust which mandates greater assistance and cooperation by oil companies with host communities, particularly in the areas of environmental protection, preservation and rejuvenation.
“We plan to achieve full deregulation of midstream gas prices within 6 (six) months, increase gas production by 20% and complete critical gas infrastructure projects by 2027. To further optimize gas production, we shall, on one hand, enforce gas flaring penalties, while on the other, offer tax credits or similar incentives to companies that achieve reasonable flare reduction targets.
Producers will be required to submit natural gas flare elimination and monetization plans to the government and will be mandated to install metering equipment on all facilities where gas flaring may occur.
“A special investigation/enforcement unit will be established to monitor gas flaring activities and assess compliance with PIA’s provisions on the reduction of gas flaring and the impact of any noncompliance on affected communities. Non-compliance will be met with financial penalties which shall be used solely for development and environmental relief of the affected communities.
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“We will hasten the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and implement favourable policies to stimulate investment in the deep-water assets such as encouraging negotiations regarding signature bonus payment and/or deferral of the payment post development, royalty reliefs amongst others.
“We shall phase out fuel subsidy yet maintain the underlying social contract between the government and the people. We will do this by dedicating the money that would have been used on the subsidy to fund targeted infrastructural, agricultural and social welfare programs ranging from road construction, to boreholes, public transportation subsidies, education and healthcare.
We shall focus our policies and interventions on all key methods of transportation: road, rail, maritime and air. We will continue with the current administration’s plans to establish a new national carrier”.
Tinubu’s government will create a permanent committee composed of representatives of the private sector and leaders in the educational sector; the committee will be tasked with establishing a curriculum that more closely matches educational instruction with the actual and projected needs of the private sector. In this way, more students will be equipped with facilities for teaching and learning.
We will reform government policy to encourage the prudent use of blockchain technology in finance and banking, identity management, revenue collection and the use of crypto assets. As part of our reforms, we will establish an advisory committee to review the existing regulatory environment governing blockchain technology and virtual assets services and, where necessary , suggest changes to create a more efficient and business-friendly regulatory framework.
We will also encourage the CBN to expand the use of digital currency, the E-naira, he said. The new government of Tinubu and Shettima which will have the youth at heart will reserve at least three cabinet positions for persons under the age of 40 and 6 more positions for others under the age of 50.
It shall also pass a presidential directive requiring that at least 20 percent of political appointments to MDAs be reserved for qualified people under the age of forty. We shall make permanent a biannual “State of the Youth” survey to create a platform for young Nigerians to give feedback to government regarding their opinions on the performance of government, paying special attention to youth empowerment programs and policies.
