Nigeria attains 85% rice production, 8m jobs – Ngige

Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment has expressed delight over the 85 percent rice production attained through the economic diversification policy of the present administration.

The Minister who stated this recently while addressing the IMF team led by IMF Economist, Western 1 Division, Africa Department, Monique Newiak, in Abuja, disclosed that about eight million jobs have so far been created through other initiatives.

The Minister who noted that President Muhammadu Buhari came into government at a time the economy of the country was nose-diving as a result of the global fall in the price of crude oil and mismanagement of the accrued resources in time of surplus by the previous administration, assured that efforts are being intensified to diversify the economy by paying more attention to the agricultural and mining sector.

“On diversification, we paid more attention to agriculture and mining so that we can feed ourselves because any country that can not feed herself is not worth being called a stable country.

“I am happy to report to you that from the statistics we have and what we have also seen, Nigerian dependent on foreign staple foods has drastically reduced. We can now boast of 85 percent rice production,” Ngige said.

Ngige added that according to the statistics released by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Government has been able to create 8 million jobs through various intervention programme such as Anchors Borrower and other grants to farmers and miners across the country.

While responding to some issues bothering on gender discrimination, the Minister dispelled the fear of gender-based discrimination in Nigerian workplaces as expressed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Article IV Consultation Team.

“The fears you are expressing about gender-based discrimination in terms of work does not exist in Nigeria.
As a matter of fact, Nigeria has implemented the Beijing Women Convention in 1995, and we do not believe that the female should be regarded as underdogs.”

Ngige emphasized that the Nigeria Constitution, Section 16(2d) makes provision for the government as a state policy to provide shelter, food, jobs, minimum wage for all irrespective of gender.

He added that the same constitution also makes provision for equal work and equal pay without discrimination.

Speaking earlier, Monique Newiak, IMF Economist, Western 1 Division, Africa Department, said that IMF will promote gender equality and its impact on growth, economic diversification in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2018.

“We will deal with the issues of promoting gender equality and its strong impact on economic growth in the first quarter of 2018.

“We will also look at a broad range of indicators, such as: economy growth, challenges of the economy, unemployment rate, key policies such as the fiscal deficit in terms of its composition, such as revenue, exchange rates, balance of payments, monetary policy and what the Central Bank of Nigeria is doing, and how it has led to different development growth in the country,” she posited.

 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja