Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday stated that
the APC Government met an economy that was
already in a meltdown, due to certain wrong
decisions that were taken in the past.
He assured Nigerians that Muhammadu Buhari
administration is doing its best to save the situation,
adding that the country did not adequately exploit the
oil boom era to invest in infrastructure and in the
area of diversifying the economy.
The Vice-President, who disclosed this while
inaugurating the agricultural sector road map titled,
'The Green Alternative: Agriculture Promotion Policy
2016 – 2020', in Abuja, said, "The present
administration came into office to meet an economy
essentially in meltdown."
He said the Federal Government had concluded that
before the end of September this year, the Bank of
Agriculture would start giving out single digit interest
loans to farmers in Nigeria.
On the issue of economic recession, he expressed
worry that during the period when oil was sold for
over $100 per barrel, the country did not increase
investment in infrastructure.
"We knew that we had to set alright the economy and
put it back on the path of sustainable growth with job
opportunities for our teeming population. So, one of
the critical components of that plan is to position
agriculture as the arrow-head of our economic
recovery efforts. If we get agriculture right, we will
get our economy right."
Osinbajo stated that the road map identified two key
challenges and that the first was the inability to meet
domestic food requirement.
He said this is a productivity issue driven by Nigeria's
inefficient input systems and farming models.
He said the second challenge was the inability to
export at levels required by the market and that this
was due to an inefficient system, weak inspectorate
measures and poor coordination among relevant
agencies.
"The Green Alternative has set out strategies for
resolving these challenges. I'm personally impressed
that the road map does not dismiss the agricultural
policy of the past," he added.
The Vice-President noted that the plan in the road
map aligned with other economic policies of the
Federal Government.
He said, "Just to give some obvious examples, we
cannot have a policy of encouraging local production
of food and on the other hand have a high tariff on
imported agricultural equipment. There is no way
that we can encourage local production while we
allow unbridled importation of the same things that
we are trying to produce."
Osinbajo observed that the financing of agriculture
was also a crucial policy, adding that "with double
digit interest rate at the moment, we have developed
some funding options in the short term."
He stated that the anchor borrowing programme of
the Central Bank which allowed farmers to get loans
at single digit interest rates had been very useful, as
it was pivotal in enabling rice farmers in Kebbi State
to increase their production considerably.
"
The Ministry of Finance has concluded plans to
recapitalise and re-engineer the Bank of Agriculture.
We expect that before the end of this quarter, the
BOA should be able to give single digit interest rate
loans to farmers," he said.
The inauguration of the agricultural road map had
various ministers and heads of different agencies of
government in attendance.