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| FEC in session |
Addressing the media at the
end of the meeting presided by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), the
Minister of State for Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed stated that
the final copy of the 2016 appropriation budget from the National Assembly will
likely receive President’s assent soonest as soon the details are transmitted
to the President accordingly.
Mrs. Ahmed, accompanied by
Minister of Information Lai Mohammed; Minister of State for Industry, Trade and
Investment Aisha Abubakar; and Minister of State (Foreign Affairs), Khadija
Bukar Abba added that her ministry will submit quarterly progress-reports to
the Council on the performance of those key priority areas to ensure
sustainability.
“We presented 34 strategic
priority programmes that need to be realised within 2016. Each of these
projects has very clear deliverables and targets and indicators which will be
measured to ensure that the respective Ministries, Departments and Agencies
(MDAs) deliver on what we are committed to implement.
“These 34 specific areas are grouped into four
major objectives. The first is policy, governance and security; second is
diversification of the economy; the third is creating support for the
poor and the vulnerable and the forth is reflating our economy through
investment.”.
“The 34
priority areas that we need to implement in 2016ý are categorized into six
thematic areas.
“There is policy, governance and security and one
item from that is to achieve and maintain a capital spending minimum of 30 per
cent in an annual basis starting from 2016. The objective of doing that is to
reflate the economy and enhance employment generation capacity for the
productive sector.
“Another area is to achieve an appropriate
exchange regime. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is leading this particular
action. The objective is to achieve a predictable exchange rate by the end of
2016. There is also a target for us to increase low
interest lending to the real sector, the focus is to achieve an interest rate
that is single digit, maybe nine per cent and the purpose is to increase output
and growth. Again the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment along with CBN
are taking action on this.
“We also have a target to maintain a stable debt
management strategy so that we can optimise the local and foreign debts that we
have and the Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office will be taking
action on this.
“On the thematic area of diversifying the
economy, we plan to implement measures to achieve self-sufficiency and become a
net exporter of certain number of agricultural produce the first one being
rice. We plan to attain self-sufficiency in rice production by 2018, in tomato
paste 2016 and also increase local production of maize, soya beans, poultry and
livestock. The deadline for these will be announced later in the year.”
“The
Ministry of Agriculture is still trying to work out details. It means we will
stop importing and we will get to a point when we will start exporting. We also
have plans to expand the agro allied sector to intensify local production of
cassava, cocoa, cashew nuts, fruits and sesemi seeds and the Agric Ministry is
also leading in that area.
“There is also plan to make use of 5,000 hectares
arable land in 12 River Basin Development Authorities and to utilise 22 dams
for commercial farming by prospective investors and the objective is to
extend farming so that it can become and all-year round activity and that there
is productivity all-year round. There is a plan to implement a road map
to increase private sector investment in tourism, sports and the
objective is to increase investment in the service sector, thereby increasing
job creation and youth employment.
“The power, rails and road is also a very
important priority area. There is a number of specific activities but one of
them is to optimise up to 7,000 megawatts installed capacity and to ensure the
associated infrastructure to ensure we transmit and distribute this capacity in
the maximum operational level that is obtainable and also to conclude the
privatisation of NIPP plants and improve management and performance of TSA.
“The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is
leading in this regard. The target deliverables is to increase the availability
of power, thereby enhancing investment, productivity and employment and
business growth in our country.
“There is also the priority objective of
resolving all issues on gas pricing. The availability of gas is very key to the
availability of power to the nation; so, gas pricing is a priority and is
currently being addressed and will be finalized and payment will be provided to
the gas suppliers who are being owed significant amount of money.
“And also there is a plan to conclude the road
map development. The objective of all of these is to increase investment, and
gas peaks supply to the oil industry.
“There are plans to complete the
Kaduna-Abuja-Ajaokuta railway lines in 2016. We are also revising the
National Rail masterplan, which is commencing construction of the Lagos – Kano
standard Gauge Rail line and also to finalise the negotiation regarding the
Calabar-Lagos rail line. Of course, the objective of this is to increase
availability of mass transit, to relief pressure on road infrastructure”, she
said.
On the fourth thematic area, which includes oil
and gas reforms, she said,
“One of the key objectives is to adopt and
execute a comprehensive national oil and gas policy, which is supposed to be
the road map for the petroleum industry development diversification as well as
privatisation and also to adopt and execute a road map for the stoppage of gas
flaring in our country. We are setting a three-year deadline to achieve
self-sufficiency in refined petroleum products and to become a net exporter of
petroleum products.
“The objective of this is to increase domestic
supply of refined products and to reduce demand on foreign exchange for
importing refined products in our country. The ministry of petroleum is pushing for this.
There is also a plan to push for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill
(PIB) in conjunction with the National Assembly. Nigeria has been classified as
one of the countries that is very poor in terms of ease of doing business so we
have a target to move 20 places up the ranking from 169 to 149. We are going to
do this by implementing a number of measures specifically targeted at
fast-tracking business approvals, acquisition of land titles, issuance of visas
for persons seeking to come into our country and do business.
“The sixth area is the investment in the lives of
our people by implementing various social projects, covering health, education
and the essence is to bring succour to the poor and vulnerable to achieve the
targets set by the Social Protection Policy, which is currently under
production. Almost every ministry has a role to play in this.
“On health sector, we plan to rehabilitate 5,000
primary health centres in 5,000 wards in 2016. The objective is to deliver
affordable health care services to Nigerians as closed as possible to their
homes.”
“Let me emphasis that when we say we want to move
towards a predictable exchange rate in the country, we are not planning to
devalue the naira. The CBN and the money policy committee is working on this
and will be concluded and made available to the country to enable users be able
to predict the exchange rate at any point in time,” she said
The Minister finally assured Nigerians that the implementations of the policies will put smiles to the faces of Nigerian, and expressed her gratitude for the patience and understanding.
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