…to capitalise agriculture bank with N1tn

Ifeanyi Onuba, Abuja and Stanley Opara with agency report


The Federal Government, through the National Economic Recovery Growth Plan, is targeting a growth rate of seven per cent between 2017 and 2020.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, disclosed this at a meeting with select joint committees of the National Assembly as part of consultations towards packaging a strategic and all-inclusive economic policy document.

He said the need for the plan and its effective implementation was more imperative, given the current state of the nation’s economy.

The minister, according to a statement from his Media Adviser, Mr. Akpandem James, pleaded that every effort must be made to ensure that the new plan eventually did not suffer the fate of those before it.

To ensure that the NERGP does not go the way of others, he stated that the government was putting in place a delivery unit that would drive its implementation through effective monitoring and evaluation.

Udoma explained that the plan was structured in such a way that it would be the basis for all subsequent budgets, which was why the contribution and support of the National Assembly was very critical to ensure the effective realisation of its objectives.

The NERGP focuses on five broad areas namely: macroeconomic policy, economic diversification and growth drivers, competitiveness, social inclusion and jobs, and governance and other enablers.

The minister said, “This plan builds on the previous development plans the country has developed, particularly the Vision 20-2020. The development of this plan is part of a process we have been working on since we came into government.

“However, the fact that we are in recession means that the plan is one that must also be designed to get us quickly out of recession. Our goal is to have an economy with low inflation, stable exchange rates and diversified inclusive growth.

“The proposed initiatives prescribed by the plan address the country’s poor competiveness, and are designed to improve the business environment and attract investment in infrastructure. Jobs and social inclusion are also key deliverables of the plan.”

In a related development, Udoma said during a meeting with the United Nations Development Programme Regional Director for Africa, Mr. Abdoulaye Mar Deiye, in Abuja, that although the country was focused on diversification of its economy, it needed oil to get out of the oil-propelled economy.

He said Nigeria’s immediate priority was to get oil production output back to the desired level to secure revenue needed to diversify the economy.

The minister explained that though the global slump in oil prices introduced some shocks that affected the country’s economy, the immediate reason for the slump into recession was the massive reduction in output caused by militancy in the oil-bearing Niger Delta region.

to capitalise agriculture bank with N1tn


The Federal Government is planning to capitalise the Bank of Agriculture with N1tn and will allow the lender to take deposits as the country seeks to boost farming output and reduce food imports.

“We are looking at 25 million farmers as stakeholders or depositors,” the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said in an interview held in Abuja.

“We are probably going to take a major step by the end of this year, and by February or March, have a structure in place for the changes we want to carry out,” Ogbeh told Bloomberg.

The Nigerian economy contracted in the first nine months of the year as oil output, the government’s main source of revenue, dropped due to attacks by militant groups on pipelines in the Niger Delta, and prices remained low.

Farming, which mostly consists of crops, including cocoa, accounts for more than 25 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, and has expanded every quarter of 2016, while factory output and mining, which includes the oil industry, shrank, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The BoA will start lending for farming projects at an interest rate of less than 10 per cent, or less than half of commercial market rates, Ogbeh said.

The bank, created in 1972 to provide credit and technical support to farming projects, lent at least N41bn to 600 businesses across Nigeria over 10 years, according to information on its website.

“It’s good to invest in the bank, but they should ensure they have proper management to improve its performance and efficiency,” the Division Head for Agriculture at Fidelity Bank Plc, Musa Tarimbuka, said by phone. “They have disbursed a lot of money over the past 40 years, and the non-performing loans are very high,” he added.

The Central Bank of Nigeria kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 14 per cent on November 24 as it seeks to support an economy forecast by the International Monetary Fund to contract by 1.7 per cent this year.

It’s also trying to curb inflation, which quickened to an 11-year high of 18.3 per cent in October. Food prices rose 17.1 per cent from a year earlier, partly due to the high price of imported food after the naira lost almost 40 per cent of its value against the dollar following the abandonment of a currency peg in June.

The government plans to distribute 110 rice mills across the country over the next two months at a subsidy of 40 per cent, Ogbeh said. These measures will help boost production and reduce food imports, which were worth about N1.2tn last year, according to statistics bureau data.


http://punchng.com/fg-targets-7-growth-economic-recovery-plan/

FTC oooooooh
wow so this is how it feels



on the topic this man is a bloody liar.....

the agric sector is a big scam

my aunty who works here was telling my mom how they will collect loan .have the cash ...they give loan to like 300 farmers loan and go n tell that incompetent thing that they have disbursed the loan to farmers

they did the same wet season ...same thing they are doing dry season

b4 u quote me uselessly

why do you think they have been warning about imminent famine ...

its not coz of weather or the crops didn't grow well

but coz they were never planted in the first place

......naija will see the scam of this government only after they leave

Almost 2 years in and they are still "targeting".

They should focus on irrigation technology to combat desertification. They should also focus on industrilization long term. It's the bigger drag on forex pepole neglect since it the harder issue.

Doubt it will be 7% but let's see how oil fair by 2019.

Shameless plug:
https://www.nairaland.com/3496315/long-term-agriculture-not-way

APC-All Promises Cancelled






It's my birthday

Na beans?
Buhari na person?
Mtchew.

That won't stop the $ from hitting N500

Another lie from the pit of hell

if it true i think it a good news

Maybe 2017 - May 2019...... There's nothing like 2020 for una

I think its time someone starts guiding the blind crazy scruffy old wicked dulllard with a lead stick.
Ewu Senegal.
Atulu Gambia.
Ekwensu odekpe!

gurunlocker:
Maybe 2017 - May 2019...... There's nothing like 2020 for una

Remember Abacha's vision 2020?

Dude had plans to be the next Mugabe.

These guys are joking. 7%,?

Kiki

After 2yrs in power

HOW CAN I POST MY STORY ON NAIRALAND

Just 7%
I still wonder how things got this bad in this country just less than two years

Emekamex:
Almost 2 years in and they are still "targeting".

philchudi:
These guys are joking. 7%,?

You expect this current Government to grow above 7% in the next Three years?



Haba they cannot give what they don't have. (Nemo Dat Quod Non Habet)

kolnel:
Just 7%
I still wonder how things got this bad in this country just less than two years

Even the 7% still remains a media story

Confused set of people.

We hope so

We are on the path of recovery and eventually growth. The future is good.

tit:
Na beans?
Buhari na person?
Mtchew.

If someone gave you a 1bn to invest. Do you think you could create jobs? If your answer is yes, then this is a good plan. If the answer is no then slag the plan. Because this is exactly what the plan means for over 150 million nigerians

will, shall, soon too common from this current government. We need an action not just words

For such to happen, first of all let's fix our infra structural decay system such as dilapidated electricity, inadequate water supply, poor housing scheme and bad roads in the country before we can lay emphasis on agriculture and other non oil sectors

Believe any statement from this dumb gov. At your peril!
Gov. Of phools, by phools, for phools!

They chattered nigerian in less than 2yrs Nd they re planning on recovering 7% What happens to the 93%?

7%!! when the Economy should have being made in heaven under Buhari by now?? They promise Nigerians better standard of living but see where we're today, a single Dollar is equal to 500 Naira a head dive fall like never seen before.

They always target with catapults...Not with economic plan.