Skip to main content

Importation of rice dropped by 95% - Ngige reels out achievements of Buhari-led govt

- Minister of labour and employment said the current administration has employed over 500,000 graduates through N-Power, others

- According to Ngige, President Buhari-led administration met a battered economy in 2015 but revived it

- Ngige said that the economic development agenda of Buhari’s administration was tailored towards a concurrent growth

Senator Chris Ngige, the minister of labour and employment, says President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic agenda is tailored towards aggressive economic recovery of the Nigerian economy.

The minister was quoted as saying this in a statement signed by Rhoda iliya, an assistant director on Monday, April 8, in Abuja.

Ngige said this while addressing the 3rd session of the specialised technical committee on social development, labour and employment of the Africa Union, which took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

READ ALSO: Rochas Okorocha says Igbo people have failed politically

The theme of the conference: “Poverty Eradication Through Strategic Investments at National and Regional Levels Towards Social Development, Labour and Employment in Africa”, subject aligned to the “Africa Agenda 2063 for Prosperity".

Ngige was a lead discussant in a paper entitled: “The Efforts of the Nigerian Government Towards the Eradication of Poverty.’’

He said that the economic development agenda of the President Buhari’s administration was tailored towards a concurrent growth of the three-tier federal structures of national, states and local governments in line with the diversity of the nation’s economy.

He said: “The present administration met a battered economy in 2015, which slipped into recession in the first and second quarters of 2016, prompting an aggressive economic recovery plan with big emphasis on agriculture and food security.

“The effects were dramatic. We boosted agriculture and raised the capacity of the nation to feed her-self, to the extent that importation of rice for example, dropped by 95%.

“The same goes for sorghum. This decisive inward look was pivoted on the elastic efforts of government, which the Central Bank of Nigeria piloted through the Anchor Borrowers Programme in agriculture."

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

Ngige said on the issue of social investments, that there were the Home Grown School Feeding Programme, which had been complementing the free education policy at the primary and junior secondary school levels. He added that this had stemmed the incidence of school dropouts, which he identified as precursor to child labour.

The minister said that the programme had captured about N10 million school children in 25 states of the federation.

He also explained that the present administration had other social investment programmes, such as the N-Power under which the federal government had employed 500,000 graduates, the N-Build where 50,000 were engaged.

He listed other programmes to include the N-Agro, N-Knowledge, N-Health, and N-Build where hundreds of thousands were also employed.

Ngige added that government enterprises and empowerment programmes also made interest-free loans available to small businesses as well as the National Cash Transfer programme (Conditional and Unconditional) to over one million vulnerable and poor Nigerians.

The minister noted that this was besides the thousands already benefiting from similar programmes by the National Directorate of Employment(NDE).

Ngige, therefore, said that the economic recovery and growth plan would not have been impossible without the anti-corruption measures such as the Treasury Single Account(TSA) and the whistle blowing policy which government put in place.

According to him, this programme has shut down leakages and ease the recovery of stolen funds as well as the efforts of the anti-corruption agencies primed for zero-corruption agenda of the government.

Ngige further said that government’s efforts in the last four years had charted a new course for Nigeria with the results of the giant strides made manifest in core sectors of agriculture, anti-corruption , employment generation, infrastructural development and war on insurgency.

PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update

He added that Africa would remain the hewers of wood and fetchers of water, (quoting late Emperor Hallie Selassie of Ethiopia) if drastic measures were not taken by the leaders to fiercely tackle myriads of teething underdevelopment scourge assailing the continent.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Afolabi Imoukhuede, the senior special assistant to President Buhari on job creation and youth empowerment, said that although N-power was a political campaign promise of the All Progressives Congress (APC), it was not politicised.

Imoukhuede said N-power was part of the Social Investment Programmes (SIP) of the APC-led federal government aimed at checking youth unemployment.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better

EXCLUSIVE: Be patient with President Buhari, Femi Adesina tells Nigerians on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng



from Nigeria News today & Breaking Naija news ▷ Read on Legit.ng 24/7 http://bit.ly/2D3G2P6
via EDUPEDIA24/7

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dust haze weather to prevail on Thursday, December 27

- The Nigerian Meteorological agency (NiMet) predicts thick dust haze weather conditions over most parts of the country - NiMet predicts northern states would experience dust haze - The agency also predicts early morning mist/fog is expected over the coastal cities The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has predicted thick dust haze weather conditions with reduced visibility over most parts of the country on Thursday, December 27. NiMet’s Weather Outlook on Wednesday, December 26, in Abuja, revealed that the central region of the country would record dust haze condition with visibility range of two to five kilometres throughout the day. It added that day and night temperatures of 27 degrees Celsius to 34 degrees Celsius and 10 degrees Celsius to 20 degrees Celsius, respectively, would prevail over the region. READ ALSO: Police reportedly arrest Badeh’s alleged killers The agency predicted that the northern states would experience dust haze with visibility range of two to fi...
Post a Comment
Read more

N2.5bn Fraud: You Have Case To Answer, Appeal Court Tells Suspended NBC Boss, Kawu

The Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Ishaq Kawu. The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, has dismissed an appeal filed by the suspended Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Dr Moddibbo Kawu, challenging the decision of the Federal High Court, to dismiss the no-case submission he filed at the lower court. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission had charged Kawu, Lucky Omoluwa (late Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Ltd) and Dipo Onifade, Chief Operating Officer of the same company, before Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa, on a 12-count charge of money laundering. Is'haq Modibbo Kaw THISDAYLIVE The suspended NBC boss and his co-accused then approached the appellate court to reverse the judgment of the Federal High Court. The appellate dismissed the no-case submission filed by Kawu and his co-accused and held that they had an explanation to give when he elected to facilitate the payment of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Buhari’s Legacy Of Recessions By Fredrick Nwabufo

Fredrick Nwabufo ‘Why always Buhari?’ As it was in 1984 under General Buhari, so it is in 2016 and 2020 under President Buhari? Is it by the unfortunate hands of kismet that recession hits Nigeria every time Buhari takes charge of the country’s affairs? If the recession of the 80s under Buhari was a conspiracy by economic and political factors, to what do we attribute that of his first coming as a civilian President — and now in his second coming? Why does pestilence scourge the land, hunger ravage the population and lives lost malevolently when Buhari presides over the country? Why always Buhari? Buhari’s undoing is his wonted predilection for hierarchising ethnicity, religion and loyalty above competence. Since 1999, no President has obtrusively shown a more nepotistic aspect than Buhari. It is unarguable that the President arrays the most competence-challenged cabinet ever in the chronicle of governance in Nigeria. Yes, a recession cabinet. Fredrick Nwabufo Here is a cabin...
Post a Comment
Read more