Voice Air Media, News Update
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday gave all state governors seven days to provide concrete feedback on their plans to accelerate food production in their respective states.
Tinubu gave the directive at the 142nd meeting of the National Economic Council attended by state governors and some lawmakers in the House of Representatives in Abuja.
He also announced a National Household Building and Support Programme that will see 100,000 families in each state receive a grant of N50,000 for three months, N155 billion to be disbursed for assorted food items, N540 billion for household grants, while 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory will receive allocations of N10 billion each for CNG buses.
The estimated N50,000 provided for 3.7 million families in the 36 states and the FCT, the allocation of N10,000 million for each of the CNG buses in the 36 states and the FCT, as well as the expenditure of 155 billion naira on a variety of foods, will cost more than 1 trillion naira.
While stressing the urgency of boosting food production in the country, the President urged state governors to work together to meet the needs of the citizens, expressing his readiness to provide the necessary support to ensure that Nigerians are relieved of hardship.
“We must meet our objectives at all levels. Please report your queries and send it to my office within seven days.
“How much support do you need from me and in what form? I am ready to provide it. But we must achieve the result.
“There is nothing we are doing that is more important than producing high-quality food for our people to eat, buy and sell. We create jobs in the production of that food, and that is without even considering generating wealth by exporting the surplus. It is not beyond our reach to achieve this for Nigerians,” he said.
The president’s comments came in the wake of multiple economic challenges that rocked the country. High inflation driven by the removal of fuel subsidies and exchange rate depreciation hit 27 percent year-on-year in October 2023.
This price increase, coupled with high food insecurity, has exacerbated the cost of living crisis, leaving Nigerians struggling to meet their needs.
Despite the adoption of important policy reforms, such as the elimination of fuel subsidies and exchange rate unification, the challenges of poverty, stagnant per capita growth and a weak business environment persist and are exacerbated by external pressures such as rising global food prices and geopolitical uncertainties.
At Thursday’s NEC meeting, Tinubu announced new plans to boost agricultural productivity, strengthen the economy by creating opportunities in the real sectors of agriculture, manufacturing and construction, and provide urgent economic relief to Nigerians.
This includes the immediate launch of the National Construction and Home Support Program to cover all geopolitical zones of the country.
“Under the programme, priority is given to the Sokoto-Badagry Expressway which will pass through Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos,” according to a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ajuri Ngelale.
The statement is titled: ‘President Tinubu urges governors to meet food security target; he approves the immediate launch of the national home construction and support program.’
The programme also prioritises other road infrastructure projects such as the ongoing Lagos-Calabar Coastal Expressway and the Trans-Saharan Highway linking Enugu, Abakaliki, Ogoja, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa and Abuja.
Tinubu also approved full counterpart funding for the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri railway; to traverse Rivers, Abia, Enugu, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe and Borno as well as the Ibadan-Abuja segment of the Lagos-Kano standard gauge railway; which will pass through Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Kwara, Niger, Abuja, Kaduna and Kano.
Ngelale noted that the program would give special priority to the Sokoto-Badagry road project “because of its importance, as some of the states it will pass through are strategic for the agricultural sustainability of the nation.”
Explaining the rationale behind the project, the Presidency said: “Within the Sokoto-Badagry Expressway corridor, there are 216 farming communities, 58 large and medium dams spread across six states, seven special agro-industrial processing zones, 156 local government areas, 39 commercial cities and towns and over 1 million hectares of arable land.”
Other elements of the National Construction and Household Support Programme include: “One-time allocation to states and the Federal Capital Territory of N10 billion for procurement of buses and CNG augmentation programme.
“Provision of a subsidy of 50,000 naira to every 100,000 families per state for three months, provision for unions and civil society organization.
“Deployment of N155 billion for the purchase and sale of a variety of food products to be distributed across the country.”
Tinubu attends the National Economic Council meeting for the first time, often chaired by his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The NEC was expected to deliberate on the new minimum wage given the president’s decision to withdraw the National Minimum Wage Committee’s proposal at Tuesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting to allow for further consultation with necessary stakeholders, including state governors, all of whom are members of the NEC.
The president had said he would only submit a new national minimum wage to the National Assembly for approval as law after such talks.
However, council members who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting remained silent on the minimum wage issue.
Announcing the resolutions reached, the Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari, who joined the governors of Imo, Kano and Kogi to brief correspondents, revealed that the federal government has approved a billion dollar agricultural mechanization program that will create 1,000 service providers in the agricultural sector. all over the country with tractors.
He explained: “We will have a minimum of 2,000 tractors a year for the next five years and for the rest of the aggregation of agricultural products at least no less than 600,000 young people will be used to serve these 1,000 service centers.”
Kyari said the plan drawn up is an agreement with John Deere and Tata to provide 2,000 tractors by the end of the year. They will be put into operation as soon as possible, he said, adding that the project was approved by the Federal Executive Council last Tuesday.
According to Kyari, the Green Imperative Project, which he said is still underway, is a €950 million project that will be unveiled soon.
Kyari revealed that the FG was expecting another agreement with Belarus Tractors to supply 2,000 tractors per year for the next five years, with 9,000 implements and spare parts, among others.
The agriculture minister also said Saudi Arabia had expressed interest in providing 200,000 metric tons of red meat each year and 1 million tons of soybeans from Nigeria.
“We had a meeting with our business owners last week and we have come up with a roadmap to help us supply and satisfy this demand.
“We are studying the possibility of partnering with foreign governments, not necessarily trying to ask them to come and invest, but asking them what we can produce so we can sell to them and earn foreign currency,” he added.
In his remarks, Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State said the NEC had directed the sub-committee on crude oil theft to provide comprehensive recommendations to end the menace during the next meeting.
Uzodinma said that although the subcommittee was expected to present its report during Thursday’s meeting, it was “inconclusive.”
Meanwhile, Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State announced the constitution of the board of directors of the Niger Delta Power Holding, which he said had been operating for a long time without a supervisory board.
He revealed that it is made up of governors from Borno, Katsina, Imo, Ekiti, Kwara and Akwa Ibom states, representing different geopolitical zones.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for Economy, Wale Edun, spoke on the activation of the Presidential Food Systems coordination unit chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
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