Buhari was elected under the
platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), defeating then incumbent President
Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He was sworn into office on May
29, 2015.
In his inaugural speech, the
president stated that his administration will focus on the economy, fight
against corruption, and provision of security.
The document reads:
ECONOMY
The presidency says the Nigerian
economy is back and is on the path of growth after the recession of 2016-17.
It said the Buhari
administration’s priority sectors of agriculture and solid minerals maintained
consistent growth throughout the recession.
It said inflation has fallen for
the fifteenth consecutive month while the nation’s external reserves are at
their highest levels in five years, currently double the size of October 2016.
“The new FX Window introduced by
the CBN in April 2017 now sees an average of $1 billion in weekly turnover, and
has attracted about 45 billion dollars in inflows in its first year, signalling
rising investor confidence in Nigeria
“Nigeria’s Stock Market ended
2017 as one of the best-performing in the world, with returns of about 40
percent,” it said.
It also said five million new
taxpayers were added to the tax base since 2016, as part of efforts to
diversify government revenue.
Also, tax revenue increased to
N1.17 trillion in the first quarter 2018, a 51 per cent increase on the first
quarter 2017 figure.
The government said N 12.7
trillion was spent on infrastructure in the 2016 and 2017 budgets, “an
unprecedented allocation in Nigeria’s recent history.”
Other economic achievements,
stated by the presidency, include the revitalisation of 14 moribund blending
plants under the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative, and the tripling of
revenue to the Federation Account from solid minerals.
It said the revenue tripled from
N700 million in 2015 to N2 billion in 2016, and again rose to N3.5 billion in
2017.
The presidency also said its
Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), which was launched by Mr Buhari in
April 2017, has stabilised the macroeconomic environment; achieved agricultural
and food security and has also ensured energy efficiency especially in power
and petroleum products.
It also said the ERGP has
improved transportation infrastructure and industrialisation primarily through
the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
“To fast-track the implementation
of the ERGP, the federal government launched the ERGP Focus Labs, as a targeted
6-week intervention (March to April 2018) to unlock medium-scale and
large-scale investment projects held back by bureaucratic bottlenecks.
“The just-concluded Phase 1 of
the ERGP Focus Labs identified projects worth about $10 billion for
fast-tracking, and the bottlenecks holding them back are now being resolved,”
the government said.
In the area of monetary, fiscal
and trade policies, the document stated that the APC administration created a
new Foreign Exchange window for investors and exporters in April 2017 which has
helped stabilise the market and increase appetite for Nigerian stocks by
foreign portfolio investors.
“The new Window has attracted
inflows of more than $45 billion in its first year of operation,” it said.
In the area of debt management,
the document reveals that government adopted a strategy that seeks to achieve
its goal by replacing Treasury Bills borrowing with lower-cost, longer-term
external financing (via Eurobonds and Concessional Loans from China)
“The Buhari Administration
inherited N12.1 trillion in debt, with N5.4 trillion annual servicing cost, and
had reduced the debt service on this inherited debt to N3.9 trillion by 2016,”
it said.
Under the Bond Issuance
programme, the government said $7.3 billion was issued in Eurobond in 2017/18,
to fund the 2017 Budget as well as to refinance maturing treasury bills and
lower the cost of borrowing for the government.
“This debt refinancing strategy
is paying off as treasury bill rates have dropped from 16-18% to 10-12% over
the last year.
“The oversubscription of our
recent Eurobond (the first issuance in 2017 saw orders in excess of US$7.8
billion compared to a pre-issuance target of US$1bn) demonstrates strong market
appetite for Nigeria, and shows confidence by the international investment
community in Nigeria’s economic reform agenda,” the government said.
Other debt related issues raised
in the document include Nigeria’s first Sovereign Sukuk Bond which raised N100
billion used to fund 25 major road projects across the country.
There was also Nigeria’s first
ever Diaspora-targeted Eurobond that raised $300 million used to fund part of
the 2017 Budget and Africa’s first Sovereign Green Bond Programme that raised
N10.69 billion used to fund infrastructure projects that tackle climate change.
Support To State Governments
The Buhari administration also
said it has extended more than N1.9 trillion to state governments, to enable
them meet their salary and pension obligations, especially in the face of
dwindling oil revenues over the last two years.
The support, it said, has come in
the form of Budget Support Facility (Total of N606.55 billion extended to the
states as of May 2018; in exchange for reforms in budgeting, IGR, debt
management, overheads, etc.)
Others are Paris Club refunds,
infrastructure loans as well as loan restructuring for facilities with
commercial banks.
Other economic related
achievements include the Anchor Borrowers Scheme of the Central Bank of Nigeria
which, it said, has substantially raised local production of rice in 2016.
It said yields from rice farming
improved from 2-3 tonnes per hectare to as high as 5 – 6 tonnes per hectare.
The programme, it said, has also
produced a model agricultural collaboration between Lagos and Kebbi States.
“Over N300 billion investments in
the rice value chain. Between 2016 and 2018, eight new rice mills have come
on-stream; and Nigeria’s paddy production and productivity has doubled compared
to 2014 levels
“Nigeria’s milled rice production
has increased from 2.5MT to about 4MT, and rice exports from Thailand to Nigeria
dropped from 1.23 million MT in 2014 to 23,192 MT as of November 2017,” the
document said.
The administration said it has
launched a series of funding and capacity development initiatives designed to
support small and medium businesses (MSMEs) across the country.
It said the new Development Bank
of Nigeria (DBN) has finally taken off, with initial funding of $1.3bn
(provided by the World Bank, German Development Bank, the African Development
Bank and Agence Française de Development) to provide medium and long-term loans
to MSMEs.
The DBN, it said, has already
disbursed N5 billion to 20,000 MSMEs, through three microfinance banks.
The government said its Ease of
Doing Business reform programme through the Presidential Enabling Business
Environment Council (inaugurated by Mr Buhari in August 2016) and the Enabling
Business Environment Secretariat (EBES) resulted in Nigeria moving up 24 places
on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings in 2017, and earning a
place on the List of 10 Most Improved Economies.
“The Buhari administration has,
since 2017, issued three Executive Orders that positively impact Nigeria’s
small business environment,
“They include the Executive Order
on Improving Efficiency in the Business Environment, Executive Order on
Promoting Local Procurement by Government Agencies and Executive Order on
planning and execution of projects, promotion of Nigerian content in contracts
and science, engineering and technology.”
The government also said it is
“doing more with less” resources.
It said N1.219 trillion was
released for capital expenditure in the 2016 budget, and N1.476 trillion so far
in the 2017 budget, making a total of N2.7 trillion (about $9 billion) in two
years.
“This investment has enabled the
resumption of work on several stalled projects — road, rail and power
projects — across the country,” it said.
The government said even at a
time of low oil prices, Nigeria’s external reserves have doubled since October
2016, from $24 billion to $48 billion.
It said the Sovereign Wealth Fund
has seen inflows of $500 million in 2016 and 2017 (the first inflows since the
original US$1 billion which the fund kicked off with in 2012).
Infrastructure
The Buhari administration said it
has demonstrated a “single-minded commitment: to upgrading and developing
Nigeria’s transport, power and health infrastructure.”
It said in May 2018, the federal
government launched the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF),
under the management of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority.
The PIDF is kicking off with seed
funding of $650 million.
It also said the Nigeria
Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) in March 2018 invested $10 million to
establish a “world-class” cancer treatment centre at the Lagos University
Teaching Hospital (LUTH), and $5 million each in the Aminu Kano University
Teaching Hospital and the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, to establish modern
diagnostic centres.
The centres, it said, should be
completed before the end of 2018.
“In 2014, the federal government
invested the following: Transport (N14 billion), Agriculture & Water (N34
billion), Power, Works & Housing (N106 billion). In 2017 those figures
jumped to: Transport (N127 billion), Agriculture & Water (N130 billion),
Power, Works & Housing (N325 billion).
“Abuja’s Light Rail system has
been completed and will go into operation in 2018. The first line to be
launched will connect the city centre with the airport, with a link to the
Abuja-Kaduna Railway Line.
“The Buhari Administration
successfully completed the reconstruction of the Abuja airport runway within
the scheduled six-week period (March – April 2017),” the document stated.
Power Sector
In the Power sector, the
government said there was more than 2,000MW of additional power generation
capacity by the end of 2018.
Some, it said, were via publicly
owned plants (Afam Fast Power, 240MW) while others are through private sector
investment supported by the federal government (Azura, 450MW).
The government said it launched a
N701 billion Payment Assurance Programme designed to resolve the liquidity
challenges in the power sector by guaranteeing payments to generating companies
and gas suppliers.
It also said there was
transmission expansion and rehabilitation programme which has resulted in a 50
per cent expansion in grid capacity since 2015, from 5,000MW to 7,125MW as at
December 2017.
It said it also launched the
Distribution Expansion Programme (DEP) which was approved by the Federal
Executive Council in February 2018 to deliver 2,000MW of unused power capacity
to consumers in need.
“Implementation of the DEP has
commenced, with the issuance, in May 2018, of a call for tenders for the procurement
of distribution substations and electrical equipment,” government said.
Investing In People
The Buhari administration says
all four components of the Social Investment Programme (SIP) have now taken
off.
“The SIP is the largest and most
ambitious social safety net programme in the history of Nigeria, with N140
billion released and more than 9 million direct beneficiaries so far,” it said.
Under the SIP, government said
200,000 N-Power beneficiaries are currently participating and receiving N30,000
in monthly stipends.
It said another 300,000 new
enrolments are being processed, to take the number to 500,000 this year.
It said as for the Government
Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), N15.183 billion has been disbursed
in interest-free loans ranging from N50,000 to N350,000 to 303,420 market
women, traders, artisans, farmers across all 36 States of the country and the
FCT.
It said under the GEEP, 56 per
cent of the loans have gone to women.
“In terms of advancing the
financial inclusion goals of the Buhari Administration, GEEP has led to the
opening of 349,000 new bank accounts/wallets for beneficiaries and intending
beneficiaries.
“In November 2017, GEEP was
chosen as the pilot programme for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Policy Innovation Unit in Nigeria,” the government said.
The Buhari government also talked
about its Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP).
It said the programme currently
feeds a total of 8.2 million pupils in 45,394 public primary schools across 24
states.
The states include Abia, Anambra,
Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo (South East); Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Delta (South
South); Osun, Oyo, Ondo and Ogun (South West); Benue, Niger and Plateau (North
Central); Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, and Zamfara (North West); Bauchi, Taraba,
Borno, Gombe and Jigawa (North East).
“Over 80,000 direct jobs have
since been created from the School Feeding Programme; with 87,261 cooks
currently engaged in the 24 participating states.
“All 36 states of the Federation
and the FCT will eventually benefit from the Programme.
“The Health aspect of the
programme has seen over 3 million pupils dewormed in six states, the deworming
programme is a bi-annual programme aimed at eradicating and reducing the burden
of worms,” it said.
Under the Conditional Cash
Transfer (CCT), the administration says 297,973 families are benefiting from
the CCT Scheme.
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