The country’s macroeconomic environment has continued to show significant growth since exiting recession in 2017, a report presented during the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on last week Thursday revealed.
The meeting, was the 96th, was presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, in Abuja.
The Jigawa State Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, presented updates on the council’s committee on export promotion.
The report is a sequel to the Zero Oil Plan, envisioned in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) which is developed by the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
The plan details the non-oil export sector as the last line of defence for the Nigeria economy.
Abubakar said the implementation of the plan is expected to yield results in three key areas including the addition of an extra $150 billion (minimum) to Nigeria’s foreign reserves cumulatively from non-oil exports over the next 10 years.
Also, it will help create 500,000 jobs annually, lift 20 million Nigerians out of poverty, and contribute towards sustainable development goals (SDG) on No Poverty.
Also, he said it has set-up templates and schematics for domestic export warehouse and anchor programme for exporters.
Other achievements include providing processing equipment and conducting capacity building programme on strategic products in the Zero Oil Plan in Kaduna, Benue, Ondo, Edo and Imo states.
The products are palm oil, soya beans and ginger.
It also identified companies for the domestic export warehouse and aggregation centre for exportable products.
Other achievements of the Zero Oil Plan to date include non-oil exports (excluding natural gas) rising from $1.17 billion in 2016 to $3.16 billion in 2018 meaning that strategic sectors identified in the Zero Oil Plan have seen growth.
The plan has identified the creation of five million jobs to date directly supported by non-oil exports, with efforts underway to increase this by 500,000 new jobs annually in line with SDG 8 – “Decent Work and Economic Growth”
A state export development fund has also been created through N50 billion debenture to be disbursed by NEXIM, in which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has invested.
The fund offers long –term loan at a single-digit interest rate to qualifying export-oriented projects under the State Export Development Programme and the anchor exporter scheme.
After the presentation and discussion, Council agreed to include the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama as a member of the committee, while states can freely change their focal persons in the committee.
Also, the council resolved to follow-up on the obligation of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Agency NIMASA regarding the financing of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
On the update on polio eradication in Nigeria, the Minister of Health said August 21, 2019 marks exactly three years milestone without a case of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) in Nigeria.
This states our progress towards certification, he said. African region will commence a six months period of receiving the criteria for certification.
He said there is a need to improve the quality of the campaigns in order to stop the outbreak of the CVDPV2 and the need for increased routine immunisation.
The minister however identified some challenges to include lack of release of counterpart funds by the local government chairpersons as one of the key problems in achieving successful routine immunisation.
Other challenges include insecurity in parts of the country.
On an update on NEC ad-hoc committee on security and policing, the Ekiti governor, Kayode Fayemi, who presented the report, said the Inspector General of Police (IGP) initiated the commencement of Community Policing.
He said there is a plan to consider using N-Power beneficiaries and youth corps members as police officers in their local government areas.
The full report of the committee will be presented at the next NEC meeting.
Culled from: PREMIUM TIMES
