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We recovered from recession ‘early’ due to Buhari’s ‘agricultural intervention’-Kebbi Gov

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The Governor of Kebbi, Abubakar Bagudu, has stated that Nigeria could not have recovered from recession “early” if not for President Muhammadu Buhari’s prioritization of agriculture and subsequent aggressive intervention in the agricultural sector, while thanking the president for recognising the significance of agriculture in economic development.

Bagudu made this claim at a stakeholders’ meeting where the operational framework for the Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS) was unfolded by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

“We could not have recovered from recession as early as we did if not for the intense agricultural intervention initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari’’, he said.

Bagudu also stressed the need for the involvement of financial institutions with banking models allowed them to support agriculture, for the programme to succeed.

Read also: FG hands N100bn Sukuk bond proceeds to Fashola for road projects

During the unfolding, the CBN Governor explained that President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise to provide 360,000 jobs for youths nationwide would be actualized through the scheme.

He said AADS was targeted primarily at unemployed youths between the ages of 18 and 35.

Emefiele said through the scheme, a minimum of 10,000 youths in each state who were willing to engage in profitable activities within the agricultural sector would be employed and trained.

He said, “I believe we are on the verge of something very significant with the AADS.

“This scheme has been designed to create an ecosystem with the active participation of the public sector, state governments and the private sector.

“It will also assist farmers in embracing modern farming practices, such as use of tractors and irrigation schemes.

“It aims to reduce cost of production with availability of high quality inputs at competitive prices and lowering delivery cost of extension services,’’ he explained.

Emefiele said that state governments were expected to provide contiguous arable land, basic infrastructure, more efficient extension services, training and mentoring of the beneficiaries.

“The CBN on its part will provide financing at single digit interest rates.

“Beneficiaries are not expected to come up with any physical collateral but they must be grouped into formally registered cooperatives and cross-guarantee each other.

“All loan beneficiaries must also have valid Bank Verification Numbers (BVN), which will be registered on the National Collateral Registry and used to track repayments and also blacklist any defaulters”.

Emefiele added that with the release of the operational framework for the scheme, engagements with stakeholders would continue to ensure that the scheme began during the dry season cultivation of the outgoing year.

Also, the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would provide technical support for the project.

“We will be fully involved in the land clearing aspect of the project. In some places we will also be building dams and lakes to ensure all season farming.

“We will also provide advice because we have a team of experts at the ministry on crops, soil testing and the right kind of fertiliser so that when these young people go into agriculture, they won’t lose money”, he said.

 

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0 Comments

  1. seyi jelili

    October 7, 2017 at 8:00 am

    Me I have not seen the recovery from recession that you are talking about o. Recession is still biting hard on Nigerians

    • Abeni Adebisi

      October 7, 2017 at 11:24 am

      Don’t mind the illiterate o.

    • yanju omotodun

      October 7, 2017 at 2:08 pm

      It’s a matter of time, let’s be patient

  2. Anita Kingsley

    October 7, 2017 at 11:01 am

    This man must be high on some cheap drugs before letting this nonsense out of his mouth, how has agriculture helped the situation of Nigeria when food stuff are still very expensive in the market and Nigerians are still very hungry

  3. Animashaun Ayodeji

    October 7, 2017 at 11:21 am

    Please who elected this Bagudu as Kebbi governor? He obviously has nothing in his brain! Agriculture is yet to start contributing to Nigeria’s economy and it won’t even happen anytime soon.

    • yanju omotodun

      October 7, 2017 at 2:10 pm

      Hajahahaha, are you cursing us, don’t forget federal government is keen to boost the agriculture sector, they are to employ 10,000 youths per state summing up to 360,000

  4. Abeni Adebisi

    October 7, 2017 at 11:24 am

    Another comedian among the governors of Nigeria, he only said that to get press’ attention and he has it already, Mr. Governor, you can go away now. Thank you

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