www.osundefender.org/?p=242226

Address By President Muhammadu Buhari at the
National Economic Council Retreat on the Economy Held at the State House Conference Centre, Presidential Villa, Abuja,

Monday 21ST, March 2016
by Nikita Bikita

I am delighted to have the opportunity to address this distinguished and all-important retreat on the Nigerian economy. The purpose of this retreat as outlined in the Retreat Concept Notes is to generate immediate, medium and long-term viable policy solutions to the economic challenges facing us at both the Federal and State levels.

2. From information at my disposal, if we aggregate public views from the grassroots, city dwellers, the economic managers, consumer groups, the Unions and other stakeholders of the economy, there is near unanimity about the ills of our economy. But naturally, there are divergent views about solutions.

3. I am going to throw at this gathering some random policy options filtered from across the spectrum of our stakeholders on four (4) selected sectors of our
economy.

These are:
Ø Agriculture
Ø Power
Ø Manufacturing
Ø Housing

4. I have not touched Education, Science and Technology pointedly because these related subjects require a whole retreat by themselves.

5. Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen, these suggestions I am putting forward to you are by no means directives but a contribution to your discourse.

AGRICULTURE
6. On Agriculture today, both the peasant and the
mechanized farmers agree with the general public that food production and self-sufficiency require urgent government action. For too long government policies on agriculture have been half-hearted, suffering from inconsistencies and discontinuities. Yet our real wealth is in farming, livestock, hatcheries,
fishery, horticulture and forestry.

7. From the information available to me the issues worrying the public today are:
• Rising food prices, such as maize, corn, rice and gari.

• Lack of visible impact of government presence on
agriculture.

• Lack of agricultural inputs at affordable prices. Cost
of fertilizers, pesticide and labour compound the
problems of farming. Extension services are virtually
absent in several states.

• Imports of subsidized food products such as rice and poultry discourage the growth of domestic
agriculture.

• Wastage of locally grown foods, notably fruit and
vegetables which go bad due to lack of even moderate scale agro-processing factories and lack of feeder roads.

8. These problems I have enumerated are by no
means exhaustive and some of the solutions I am
putting forward are not necessarily the final word on
our agricultural reform objectives:

• First, we need to carry the public with us for new
initiatives. Accordingly the Federal Ministry of
Agriculture in collaboration with the States should
convene early meetings of stakeholders and identify
issues with a view to addressing them.

• Inform the public in all print and electronic media
on government efforts to increase local food
production to dampen escalating food prices.

• Banks should be leaned upon to substantially
increase their lending to the agricultural sector.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should bear part of the
risk of such loans as a matter of national policy.

• States should increase their financial support
through community groups. The appropriate
approach should be through leaders of community
groups such as farmers cooperatives.

• Provision of feeder roads by state governments to
enable more effective evacuation of produce to
markets and processing factories.

9. When I was a schoolboy in the 1950’s the country
produced one million tons of groundnuts in two successive years. The country’s main foreign exchange earners were groundnut, cotton, cocoa, palm kernel, rubber and all agro/forest resources.

10. Regional Banks and Development Corporations in
all the three regions were financed from farm surpluses. In other words, our capital formation rode
on the backs of our farmers. Why was farming so
successful 60 years ago? The answers are simple:

• Access to small scale credits
• Inputs (fertilizers, herbicides etc)
• Extension services.

11. Now we have better tools, better agricultural
science and technology, and greater ability to process. With determination we can succeed.

POWER
12. Nigerians’ favourite talking point and butt of jokes
is the power situation in our country. But, ladies and
gentlemen, it is no longer a laughing matter. We must
and by the grace of God we will put things right. In the three years left for this administration we have given ourselves the target of ten thousand megawatts
distributable power. In 2016 alone, we intend to add
two thousand megawatts to the national grid.

13. This sector has been privatized but has yet to show any improvement in the quality of service. Common public complaints are:

• Constant power cuts destroying economic activity
and affecting quality of life.
• High electricity bills despite power cuts.
• Low supply of gas to power plants due to vandalization by terrorists.
• Obsolete power distribution equipment such as
transformers.
• Power fluctuations, which damage manufacturing
equipment and household appliances.
• Low voltage which cannot run industrial machinery.

14. These are some of the problems, which defied
successive governments. In our determination to
CHANGE we must and will, insha Allah, put a stop to
power shortages. Key points to look at here are:

• Privatization. We are facing the classic dilemma of
privatization: Public interest Vs Profit Motive. Having
started, we must complete the process. But National
Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the
regulatory authority, has a vital job to ensure
consumers get value for money and over-all public
interest is safe-guarded.

• Government to fast-track completion of pipelines
from Gas points to power stations and provide more
security to protect gas and oil pipelines.

• Power companies should be encouraged to replace
obsolete equipment and improve the quality of service and technicians.

MANUFACTURING
15. It grieves me that so many manufacturing
industries in the country today are groaning and
frustrated because of lack of foreign exchange to
import raw materials and spare parts.

Painful though this is, I believe it is a temporary phase which we shall try to overcome but there are deeper, more structural problems bedeviling local industries which this Retreat should identify short and long-term answers to. Chief among these problems are:

• Inadequate infrastructure:
Power
Roads
Security
leading to increase in costs of making Made-inNigeria
goods pricier than imports

• High Cost of Borrowing Money:
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has been
hammering on the fact that high lending rates make
manufacturing unviable and unprofitable.

• Lack of Long Term Funding:
The Nigerian Capital Market has not completely
recovered from the 2008 worldwide crisis. Banks’
funding sources are short-term in nature due to
sources of the liabilities.

• Under-developed Science and Technology Research:
As with Agriculture, Nigeria’s industries are in the main outmoded and industrial practices far behind those in advanced countries.

• Unions:
We need to protect our workers from exploitation, but unions must cooperate with entrepreneurs to
substantially improve productivity and quality of
products if we are to move forward.

• Smuggling:
Need I say more?

16. Recommended Actions on industries are:

• The infrastructure Development Fund should be fast- tracked to unlock resources so that infrastructural deficiencies can be addressed.

• There should be more fiscal incentives for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which prove themselves capable of manufacturing quality products good enough for export.

• Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should create more
incentives and ease credit terms for lending to
manufacturers.

• A fresh campaign to patronize Made-in-Nigeria goods should be launched. Example: all uniforms in
government-sponsored institutions should be sourced from local factories.

HOUSING
17. Some estimates put Nigeria’s housing deficit at
about sixteen million units. In our successful
campaign to win the general elections last year our
party, the APC, promised to build a million housing
units a year. This will turn out to be a very tall order
unless:

• The Federal Government builds two hundred and
fifty thousand units. The 22 APC States together
manage another two hundred and fifty thousand
units.

• We invite foreign investors together with local
domiciled big construction companies to enter into
commercial housing building to pick up the rest.

• The most frequent public concerns brought to my
attention are three-pronged:
1. Severe shortage of housing
2. High rents
3. Unaffordable prices for prospective buyers
especially middle and low-income earners.

• In addition, red tape, corruption and plain public
service inefficiency lead to long delays in obtaining
ownership of title documents.

• Again, there are no long term funding sources for
mortgage purposes.

18. These hurdles are by no means easy to scale, but
we must find solutions to the housing deficit. This
Retreat might start by looking at the laws.

• Laws
The relevant laws should be reviewed to make the
process of acquiring statutory right of occupancy
shorter, less cumbersome and less costly. Court
procedures for mortgages cases should make
enforcement more efficient. Ministries of Works and
Housing should upgrade their computerization of title registration system for greater efficiency.

• Mortgage Institutions. Achieving affordable housing
for all Nigerians will require the development of
strong and enduring mortgage institutions with
transparent processes and procedures.

• Mortgage Re-financing Company. This institution
when fully operational should ensure adequate
support for mortgage financing.

HEALTHCARE
19. Last of the four areas that time will allow me to say a few words, but by no means the least, is healthcare.

In my inauguration speech last May, I remarked that
the whole field of Medicare in our country needed
government attention. Dirty hospitals! (Few sights are
more upsetting than a dirty hospital), inadequate
equipment, poorly trained nursing staff, overcrowding. The litany of shortcomings is almost
endless.

20. Sound health system is part of the prerequisites
for economic development. Nigerians travel abroad,
spending an estimated One Billion US Dollars annually to get medical treatment. Despite huge oil revenues the nation’s health sector remains undeveloped.

21. In attacking the challenges of this sector we could
start with

• More funding for health centres to improve service
delivery. World Bank and World Health Organization
(WHO) could be persuaded to increase their
assistance.

• Strengthening public health propaganda in primary
prevention:
Ø Environmental sanitation
Ø Stop smoking
Ø Better dieting
Ø Exercising

And secondary prevention:
Screening and early diagnosis of diseases

• NAFDAC to intensify efforts on reducing or stopping
circulation of fake drugs in Nigeria.

• Ministry of Health should work closely with the
Nigerian Medical Association to ensure that
unqualified people are not allowed to practice.

22. Finally I urge participants to learn from the array
of experts and resource persons and learn from the
shared experiences and perspectives to understand
how other countries have transformed their
economies and livelihoods of their people for the
better. It is also the government’s expectation that this Retreat will highlight the respective roles and
responsibilities of each tier of government in adopting and implementing agreed policy initiatives.

23. I hope this Retreat will come up with practical,
viable solutions and recommendations as we chart a
course for our nation in this turbulent domestic and
international economic environment.

Thank you.

Implement pls