Nigeria has to return to Agriculture – Buhari

The only way for Nigeria to regain economic momentum, in the face of continuous oil price fall, is to return to agriculture, President Muhammadu Buhari said, Tuesday, in Birnin Kebbi.

Agriculture had been the country’s mainstay in time past, but was abandoned in the advent of oil boom, the President said adding that the current trend at the international oil market has strengthened the need for diversification.

Buhari who was speaking at the launch of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and the commencement of the dry season farming, said the country could no longer afford to spend huge amount of money importing foods that could be locally produced.

The CBN put Nigeria’s food imports at over N1trillion.

“The importance of agriculture in the economy can not be over emphasised. Prior to the advent of oil, our country survived on agriculture production.

During this period, the economy our sub region was built on agricultural activities and our gross domestic product grew steady.

“The discovery of oil was expected to compliment our agriculture productivity. But we allowed oil to almost completely replace it. Our current trend at the international oil market had brought to fore the urgent need to diversify both the productive and revenue based of our economy and to conserve our foreign reserve by limiting our appetite for importation of goods that we can easily produce locally,” the president said.

“Economic diversification is no longer an option for us, it is the only way to economic momentum and the drive to prosperity,” he added.

The President said he has high hopes that the CBN anchor borrowers’ programme, will create million of jobs for the teeming unemployed Nigerian youth, as well lift thousands our of poverty.

Earlier, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe commended his predecessor Akinwunmi Adesina for innovation introduced to the nation’s agricultural system promising to sustain them.

He however, noted that despite the good intention of Adesina, corruption still crept into agriculture under him. “People supplied sharp sands as fertilizer while fake seeds were sold to farmers. There were companies with no traceable address” he said adding that many farmers lost their monies because of this.

“No room for quacks anymore. Under this administration,  that will never happen again. No room for quacks anymore. Security agencies will now be used to check fraudsters. We will no longer allow the elite play prank on  our farmers” he added.

Also speaking, the CBN governor , Godwin Emefiele said the apex bank was concerned about the high forex spent on importation of food items that could be locally produced in Nigeria adding that this had informed the setting aside of N40billion from the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund for farmers at a single-digit interest rate of 9.0 per cent.

According to him, agricultural commodities and food import bill had averaged over N1trillion in the past two years.

He said: “Food products like wheat, sugar, milk, rice and fish accounted for N901 billion or 93.5 per cent and N788 billion or 88.71 per cent of this total in 2013 and 2014 respectively.”

Emefiele put the import bill of rice and wheat at N428 billion and N307 billion in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

He noted that the allocation of foreign exchange to the importation of these items had continually depleted the nation’s foreign reserve, which he said had been on a steady decline in recent times.

Agriculture, he said remained an important sector in the economy despite the neglect it had suffered.

Governors of Sokoto, Cross River, Plateau, Zamfara and Niger states attended the event while Kaduna and Katsina were represented by their deputy.

 

Elizabeth Archibong