Aso Villa Newsletter: 2017 In Review

Looking Back At 2017

2017. As President Buhari recently described it, 2017 was a difficult year. The President was ill and on medical vacation for much of the first half of the year. In his words, “I have never been so sick.” His bouncing back to good health in August coincided with the emergence of the economy from five quarters of recession. In the first half of the year the President launched the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), and Vice President Osinbajo (as Acting President) signed the 2017 Budget into law. (That Budget Proposal was submitted to the National Assembly by President Buhari in December 2016, but was not passed into law by the National Assembly until May 2017).

To recap, 2017 was the year in which:

1. Nigeria exited its worst recession in decades. After five quarters of negative growth, the economy bounced back into positive territory. Agriculture was one of the stars of 2017, posting consistent growth levels even throughout the recession. Also, Inflation fell for ten consecutive months during 2017 (February to November).

2. The Naira stabilised against the dollar, after the Central Bank introduced a new forex window for Investors and Exporters. The stability has attracted billions of dollars in portfolio investments since April 2017.

3. On the back of a stable Naira and increased investment inflows, Nigeria’s stock market emerged one of the best-performing in the world, delivering returns in excess of 40 percent.

4. Nigeria saw bumper food harvests, especially in rice, whose local production continues to rise significantly (States like Ebonyi, Kebbi, Kano leading the pack, with Ogun joining at the end of 2017). The price of a 50kg bag of rice – a staple in the country – has fallen by about 30 percent since the beginning of 2017, as local production has gone up.

5. The Federal Government launched a 701 billion Naira Intervention Fund (‘Payment Assurance Programme’) aimed at supporting power generation companies to meet their payment obligations to gas and equipment suppliers, banks and other partners. The impact is being felt, the amount of power being distributed is now currently steady at around 4,000MW - higher than previously recorded.

6. The Federal Government began paying pensions to police officers who were granted Presidential pardon in 2000 after serving in the former Biafran Police during the Nigerian Civil War. These officers, and their next of kin, have waited for their pensions for 17 years since the Presidential pardon.

7. Nigeria rose 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings, and earned a place on the List of Top 10 Reformers in the world. As part of efforts to entrench an enabling environment for business in Nigeria, the National MSME Clinics initiative engaged and provided support to 364,028 MSMEs across 11 States in 2017.

8. Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves grew by $12 billion, reaching the highest level since 2014. Nigeria also added, in 2017, an additional $250m to its Sovereign Wealth Fund (making a total of $500m added since the Buhari administration took office). Also, Nigeria’s trade balance crossed over into surplus territory, from a deficit in 2016.

9. Nigeria successfully issued two Eurobonds (US$4.5bn), a Sukuk Bond (100 billion Naira), a Diaspora Bond (US$300m), and the first Sovereign Climate Bond ('Green Bond') in Africa, raising billions of dollars for infrastructure spending.

10. The Federal Government launched a Tax Amnesty scheme (the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme, VAIDS) expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenues when it closes in March 2018.

11. The Federal Government successfully commenced implementation of a Whistleblowing Programme that has so far seen recoveries of tens of millions of dollars.

12. The Social Investment Programme – Nigeria’s most ambitious social welfare programme ever – rolled out across dozens of states. Currently, 5.2 million primary school children in 28,249 schools in 19 states are being fed daily; 200,000 unemployed graduated enlisted into the Npower Job Scheme, a quarter of a million loans already distributed to artisans, traders, and farmers; and more than 280,000 people benefited from the Cash Transfer programme across 21 States.

13. The number of Nigerians facing food insecurity in the northeast dropped by half, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

14. The Nigeria Customs Service recorded its highest-ever revenue collection, crossing the One Trillion Naira (N1,000,000,000,000) mark. [The target for 2017 was 770 billion Naira (N770,573,730,490); 2016 Collection was just under 900 billion (N898,673,857,431.07)]

15. The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), under the new management appointed by President Buhari in 2016, remitted 7.8 billion Naira to the coffers of the Federal Government. The total amount remitted by JAMB between 2010 and 2016 was 51 million Naira.

16. 2017 was also the Year of Nigeria’s Agriculture Revolution, embodied by the successes of the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI) and the Anchor Borrowers Programme. More than a dozen moribund fertilizer blending plants were revived under the PFI this year.

17. Finally, 2017 will be the Year that laid the foundation for a 2018 that will be Nigeria’s Year of Infrastructure. A number of important infrastructure projects, in power, rail and road, are scheduled to come on-stream or inch close to completion next year.

2017 was also the year we launched a new State House website. Look out for lots of engaging and informative content in 2018: https://statehouse.gov.ng/


Nigeria's Agriculture Revolution: A 2017 Timeline

Pre-2017 Context

November 17, 2015: Launch of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) by President Muhammadu Buhari, in Kebbi State. The ABP was created by the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide a linkage between smallholder farmers (SHFs) of key agricultural commodities, and "anchor" companies involved in the processing of these commodities. The ABP provides farm inputs in kind and cash (for farm labour) to smallholder farmers to boost production of these commodities, stabilize inputs supply to agro processors, and address Nigeria's negative balance of payments on food. At harvest, the SHFs supply their produce to the Agro-processor (Anchor) who pays the cash equivalent to the farmer’s account. Since inception, the CBN has invested more than N40 billion in the ABP, benefiting more than 200,000 smallholder farmers -- growing rice, wheat, maize, cotton, soya beans, poultry, cassava and groundnuts as well as involved in fish farming -- across 29 states of the federation. Find out more about the ABP here

February 2016: Groundbreaking ceremony for the 120,000MT per annum WACOT Rice Mill in Argungu, Kebbi State.

December 2, 2016: Birth of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) with the signing of a Phosphate Agreement between FEPSAN and OCP, on behalf of Nigeria and Morocco respectively. Details here: https://medium.com/@TheAsoVilla/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-presidential-fertiliser-initiative-pfi-e6879d424dd6

2017

February 14, 2017: First output of blended NPK Fertiliser rolls out under the PFI

April 2017: Launch of new Tomato Policy by the Federal Government to boost investment in local production.

July 2017: Launch of the Presidential Economic Diversification Initiative (PEDI), aimed at supporting the revival of moribund industries (especially in Agro-processing) and facilitating new investments, by reducing regulatory bottlenecks and enabling access to credit.

July 27, 2017: Commissioning of Indorama Eleme Fertilizer Plant, Port Harcourt, by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

August 1, 2017: Commissioning of the 120,000 MT per annum WACOT Rice Mill in Argungu, Kebbi State, by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. It was the first Rice Mill to be conceived, completed and commissioned under the Buhari Administration.

August 29, 2017: Commissioning of the 60,000 MT per annum Edo State Fertilizer Company Limited (also managed by WACOT, in a Public Private Partnership with the Edo State Government), by the Vice President.

September 12, 2017: Commissioning of OLAM's 750,000 MT per annum Integrated Poultry Facility (consisting of Feed Mill, Hatchery and Breeder Farms) in Kaduna State, by President Buhari

September 2017: Fifteen (15) moribund NPK Fertilizer Blending Plants now revived and in operation across Nigeria, under the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative. Target is 18 before the end of 2017.

October 2017: Dangote Rice Company Limited launches the Dangote Youth Rice Farm project, an out-grower scheme for youths, at the Lower Niger River Basin Authority, Kampe, in Yagba West local government area of Kogi State. The Dangote Rice Company provides seedling, pesticides, and fertilizers while the Basin Authority provides the land.

December 1, 2017: Commissioning of Kellogg's Tolaram Cereal Plant, in Lagos. It will produce 10,000MT of cereal per annum.

December 21, 2017: Commissioning of Mitros Rice Mill in Abeokuta, Ogun State, to produce Ofada and Parboiled Rice.