The Minister of National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, presented details of the federal government 2017 Budget in Abuja, yesterday, with a call on Nigerians not to despair over the current recession, and thatthe budget would pull the nation back on the path of growth, next year.
Accompanied by several cabinet members, he assured that the federal government was bold and determined to rescue the people from the current economic challenges through the next year’s budget with infrastructure taking the bulk of capital allocations.
His words, “As a Government, we are determined to bring succour to our people. The only way we can do this is by taking strong action to change, in a fundamental way, the current trajectory of the Nigerian economy. This is not the time for a timid and cautious approach. This is a time for bold and focussed action.
“To get out of this recession and back on the path of growth, Government must find the resources to spend on infrastructure, and to spend to reflate the economy. This spending will help to stimulate and attract private sector capital and private sector spending. This is what the 2017 Budget proposals seek to do.
“We should not allow ourselves to be discouraged by those who say we can’t find the money to fund the spending required to implement this budget. We must, and we can, find the resources.
“We will challenge our revenue generating agencies, particularly the FIRS and Customs to improve their efficiencies and broaden their reach so as to achieve the targets set for them in the 2017 Budget. They must be tasked to leverage technology to drive revenue collection. We will be issuing new guidelines and templates for computing the operating surpluses of the various Government Agencies so that we can achieve the targets we have set for independent revenues.”
Social Intervention Projects
He said that not much was achieved in the current budgetary provisions for Social Intervention Projects because the administration needed to widely consult and plan well to avoid leakages.
Sen. Udoma said that the 2017 fiscal year would witness an accelerated implementation in that regard, since the planning was over.
His words, “2016 was a year of planning – because those projects, you just have to make sure that you get them right. So extensive consultations, planning, have gone into those projects because we don’t want any wastes.
“We want to make sure that the funds get to the intended beneficiaries. And so 2017 , you will see full implementation. In 2017, we will not waste time with preparatory work because it has been done. So once budget is passed , in 2017, we will roll out with implementation.”
Minister of Petroleum
Responding to questions on the threats of a strike action by oil workers, the Muinister of State, Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said that he had spoke to oil companies to stop the sack of workers.
He said, “We are working to forestall closure of production. We hope to resolve it today. The reality is that when you are in a recess environment like where we are, businesses are not too good. People will want to cut costs and one of those areas is employment costs.
“But we are hopeful that the recent effort we have launched on how JVs are being funded would increase the momentum in the oil sector and if it does, the incidences of people being made to lose their jobs will reduce. But I have told all the oil companies to suspend every action towards reduction of staffing until we have taken the first quarter analysis of what will be the impact of what we have done in the oil sector.”
Dr. Kachikwu also said that his team was working to achieve “Zero militancy incursion into oil production.”.
According to him, this would require, “a whole lot of works and continuous engagement and a whole lot of effectiveness in terms of policing those areas,” but worth it.
Agriculture
The Minister of Africulture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe, who also made clarifications on his sector said that things were looking up for Nigerians farmers, many of whom, he said, were experiencing boom , rather than recession.
His words, “Government takes agriculture very seriously and the immediate goal if to achieve self-sufficiency in grains and staples. I can tell you today that there is almost no recession. Recession is more of a feature in the cities now and the villagers are much happier because they confess to us that they have never had it so good.
“We spent a lot of money giving seed to farmers. We spent a lot of money changing the fertilizers formulations and the soil map of this country because before now, fertilizers were distributed on the basis of what they called NPK 151515. A fertilizer blend that was expected to be suitable for all soils and all crops. That in itself was a very serious error. There are no two parcels of 10 hectares of land that have exactly the same chemical composition. That change has resulted in yields of from 2 tons of rice to 7.5 per hectare. Next year , we will re-launch cocoa with a target of 5 million seeds per annum, for the next four years. And cocoa grows in 23 states of the federation, not only in the South West, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.
“This year we earned $500 m from cashew nuts. That was because we exported it raw. If we process our cashew , which we will do from next year, we will earn nothing less than $1.5 billion a year. The demand for cashew in the world is very high.”
The Director-General of budget, Mr. Ben Akabueze said that about N288.6 billion of looted funds comprising recoveries from the Gen Sani Abacha, N72 billion recovered recently, as well as, about N90 billion to be recovered next year would form part of the funding resources for the 2017 budget.
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