President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration saved
Nigeria from trouble by persuading citizens to return to agriculture.
Agriculture was Nigeria’s major source of revenue before
crude oil was discovered in the 1970s.
Speaking at a virtual meeting with members of the
presidential economic advisory council (PEAC) at the Presidential Villa in
Abuja, Buhari said unemployed Nigerians, particularly those without education,
were persuaded to engage in agricultural activities.
A statement issued by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman,
on Tuesday, quoted the president as saying his administration stopped food
importation to allow farming to thrive.
He said such efforts have also resulted in job creation and
reduction of poverty.
“For us to bounce back to productivity, especially in
agriculture, the unemployed with many of them uneducated had to be persuaded to
go into agriculture,” he said.
“If we hadn’t gone back to the lands we would have been in
trouble by now. That is why we virtually stopped the importation of food
thereby saving jobs and foreign exchange.”
Addressing the issue of loans received under his
administration, Buhari said the loans are being used to finance infrastructure
with the aim of attracting foreign investments into the country.
Documents had shown that Nigeria is indebted to China to the
tune of $3.121 billion dollars as of March 31, 2020.
According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), this
represents 3.94 percent of Nigeria’s total public debt, which stood at $79.303
billion as of March 31 (N28.6 trillion).
Nigeria’s total debt to China also accounts for 11.28% of
the total external debt stock of $27.67 billion.
“We have so many challenges with infrastructure. We just
have to take loans to do roads, rail and power, so that investors will find us
attractive and come here to put their money,” he said.
“COVID has reduced us to the same level as developed
countries. We are lucky we went back to the land. We eat what we produce. We
are doing our best to secure the country and provide infrastructure for investment
to be viable in the country.”
Buhari pledged to continue to draw from the wisdom,
knowledge and experiences of PEAC members as the nation deals with challenging
economic times.
According to the presidential spokesman, Ayo Salami, PEAC chairman,
presented the council’s recommendations on poverty reduction and stimulation of
non-debt investment inflows.
He said the council recommended steps for the effective
implementation of government’s plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of
poverty, as well as measures to curb poverty disparity in Nigeria.
The presidential spokesman said the council promised to set
out a full policy paper that would, in the first instance, stop more Nigerians
from falling into poverty and thereafter, further plans on reducing the poverty
headcount in the country.
“The PEAC also outlined a number of measures aimed at
aggressively increasing the country’s non-debt investment inflow, including
measures to improve investor perception of the country and the proposed
establishment of a 5 billion – 10 billion dollars investment and growth fund to
invest in,” the statement reads.
“It listed the implementation of reforms encapsulated in the
Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 recently signed into law, the
reforms in the energy sector, bringing electricity and fuel prices in line with
the market, and the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria to merge the
exchange rate of the naira versus other foreign currencies.”
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