Agriculture panacea to Nigeria’s economic crisis – Ganduje

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has called on state governments to tap into the opportunities in agriculture, rather than rely on federal allocation in order to riggle out of the present economic crisis.

Ganduje who stated that Nigeria’s abandoning of agriculture was a grave mistake, pointed out that reverting to agriculture as the economy’s mainstay is the only antidote to the nation’s economic crisis.

“Agriculture is fast growing in Nigeria because the cheap money that we receive from oil is no more reliable. Agriculture must be productive. And we are happy that the present administration under Muhammadu Buhari had taken agriculture as a very important issue of economic development. What we require is sustainable policy because without sustainable policies, agriculture will be very difficult to be improved,” the governor stated at the 2017 BusinessDay States Competitiveness and Good Governance Awards in Abuja.

Ganduje spoke on behalf of other recipients at the event.

Prior to the discovery of oil in Nigeria,
agriculture was the mainstay of the economy between 1960 and 1965 and contributed up to 60percent of GDP.

However, with sudden crash in the price of crude oil in the international market in June 2014, Nigeria with a mono-economy became one of the worst hit countries.

In 2016, the Federal Government came up with a plan to revive agriculture as the economic mainstay of the country with the Green Alternative Road Map. The policy sought to reduce drastically Nigeria’s over-dependency on imported food. Its fundamental objectives include stimulating agro-export for foreign earnings and achieving food self-sufficiency.

The Kano State Governor whose state clinched the Fastest Growing State Economy Category at the event, commended the organisers, saying the award will encourage and promote good governance amongst states of the Federation.

“We are highly delighted to see that the issues that BusunessDay have chosen are contemporary issues that if we are to move Nigeria forward, they are issues that government must pay attention to. In particular, they examined issues of growing cities. Certainly Kano is the most populous state in the federation and the second cosmopolitan city in Nigeria after Lagos.

“Our educational system does not match with contemporary requirement in terms of skills acquisition. So for a state government to give initiative and introduce measures where skill acquisition is given priority for the development of small and medium industries, there’s no better way to improve the economy than this approach,” he said.

Other award categories and recipients invlude: Best State in Tourism was Osun State; Transparency in Governance, Jigawa State; Most Improved State in Urban and Rural Infrastructure, Edo and Enugu States respectively; Best State in the Promotion of Made in Nigeria Goods,  Abia; Most improved State in Ease of Doing Business, Kaduna; Best State on Agricultural Development, Benue; Best State in Housing Development, Ogun; Best States in Education Development, Sokoto and Imo as well as Best States in Security, Gombe and Plateau States.

Governors Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, Simon Lalong of Plateau State, federal and state lawmakers, traditional rulers, captains of industries attended the programme.

 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja