President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that the N1 trillion spent on importation of food is no longer sustainable as most of the imported food can be produced locally.
Moreover, plummetting oil prices on the international market has brought to the fore the urgent need to diversify both the production and revenue bases of our economy, conserve foreign reserves by limiting the appetite for imported goods can be produced easily.
According to him, agriculture has always been the mainstay of the nation’s economy but was abandoned following the discovery of oil.
The President, who launched the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to coincide with the commencement of the dry season farming, disclosed that falling oil prices have left Nigeria with no other option but to diversify.
The Anchor Borrower programme of the CBN is initiated to develop rice production in the country with Kebbi State as the starting point and model. Buhari in Kebbi, provides a platform for tripartite collaboration between rice farmers, rice millers as up-takers and commercial banks.
Under the programme, CBN provides loans to farmers which will be accessed through commercial banks and rice processors such as Labana, Umza, Popola Foods will mop up the entire production by farmers.
“The importance of agriculture in the economy cannot be over-emphasised. Prior to the advent of oil, our country survived on agricultural production,” the President said.
He said that agricultural produce such as groundnuts, palm oil, cotton and rubber plantation used to be the mainstay of the economy.
The President recalled that during this period, the economy of Nigeria was built on agricultural activities and the country’s gross domestic product grew steadily adding that banks and investment companies were financed from farming surpluses.
But he lamented that the discovery of oil was expected to complement the country’s agriculture productivity; however, this was not so, as oil was allowed to completely replace it.
He said: “Our current trend at the international oil market had brought to the fore the urgent need to diversify both the production and revenue bases of our economy and to conserve our foreign reserves by limiting our appetite for importation of goods that we can easily produce locally.”
He stressed that that the price of oil had plummeted in the international market which has a negative effect on the nation’s economy, putting government at all levels at risk.
President Buhari reiterated that economic diversification is no longer an option for the country, it is the only way to economic momentum and the drive to prosperity.
-Leadership
