N1trn Food Importation Unsustainable – PMB

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday declared that the N1 trillion spent on importation of food is no longer sustainable as most of the food can be produced locally .

According to him, agriculture had always been the mainstay of the nation’s economy but was abandoned following the discovery of oil.

The president, who stated this at the launching of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and the commencement of the dry season farming, disclosed that the falling oil prices had left Nigeria with no other option but to diversify.

The Anchor Borrower programme of the CBN is initiated to develop rice production in the country with Kebbi State as starting point and model. Buhari in Kebbi , provides a flat form for a tripartite collaboration between rice farmers ,rice millers as up -takers and commercial banks.

Under the programme,CBN provide loans to the farmers which will be accessed through commercial banks and rice processors such as LABANA ,UMZA , POPOLA foods will mop up the entire farmer production.

“The importance of agriculture in the economy cannot be over emphasised. Prior to the advent of oil, our country survived on agriculture production,” the president said.

He said that agricultural produce such as groundnuts, palm oil, cotton and rubber plantation used to be the mainstay of the economy.

President Buhari recalled that during this period, the economy of Nigeria was built on agricultural activities and the country’s gross domestic product grew steady adding that banks and investment companies were financed from farming surpluses.

Buhari lamented that the discovery of oil was expected to compliment the country’s agriculture productivity, however, this was not so, as oil was allowed to completely replace it.

He said; Our current trend at the international oil market had brought to fore the urgent need to diversify both the productive and revenue based of our economy and to conserve our foregoing reserve by limiting our appetite for importation of goods that we can easily produce locally,” .

He stressed that that the price of oil had plummeted in the international market which has a negative effect on the nation’s economy putting government at all levels at risk .

President Buhari reiterated that economic diversification is no longer an option for the country, it is the only way to economic momentum and the drive to prosperity.