FG giving infrastructure development top priority ----VP Osinbajo
(Nigeria) The Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday said the Federal Government would continue to accord priority to infrastructure development in all the current interventions in the country.
Osinbajo made the remarks at the 15th meeting of the Joint
Planning Board and National Council on Development Planning in Kano State.
He said that the Federal Government had released total
capital releases of over 50 per cent to MDAs for the execution of various
projects in line with this commitment.
Osinbajo said that the National Strategic Planning was very
critical to the attainment of structural transformation and sustainable
development in the country.
“Strategic planning generally provides direction, coherence
and coordination and they are veritable frameworks for guiding the activities
of all stakeholders towards achieving a common goal,” he said.
The vice president said the strategic planning for SDGs
entailed partnership as enshrined in Goal 17 which emphasised the need for
working with states for economic development.
He said the Federal Government had adopted zero based
budgeting policy to allow for deployment of resources to areas and sectors of greatest
needs.
Osinbajo said the Federal Government had also used
short-term strategic implementation plan to guide the implementation of the
2016 budget.
He said the current administration also accorded top
priority to agriculture for self sufficiency and food security.
This, he said, was aimed at reducing the financial burden
and pressure on foreign exchange resulting in importation of foods that could
be produced locally.
“The mixture of support instruments and incentives would be
used bring about growth in sectors that are critical for economic
revitalisation, especially in agriculture and agric business, among others.’’
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo
Udoma, urged states to complement Federal Government’s effort in the area of
agriculture and solid minerals development.
He said this was necessary in view of the fact that the
country was endowed with arable land for massive production of food.
“The states may wish to target some selected crops for
massive production of such commodities. They can boost production through the
formation of farmers’ cooperatives for easy access to loan facilities”, he
said.
He said the state could also undertake infrastructural
development such as roads to ease evacuation of farm produce.
“This will promote economic growth through the creation of
job opportunities for the teeming number of unemployed youths in the country,’’
he said.
He said the Federal Government was committed to
restructuring of the Bank of Agriculture, BoA, to enable it give loans at
single digit interest rate.
The Kano State governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, represented
by his Deputy, Prof Hafiz Abubakar, said the state government would collaborate
with all relevant stakeholders to implement the recommendations of the
meetings.
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