Full Text: Buhari’s Address At National Economic Council Retreat
President Muhammadu Buhari today declared
open the 2-day National Economic Council
meeting in Abuja.
In his speech at the address, Buhari urged the
council to focus on issues such as power,
housing, manufacturing and agriculture, an
advice he said was not directive, but merely to
intimidate the council of the core issues that
need its attention.
The president’s full address at the retreat is
reproduced below…
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
MUHAMMADU BUHARI
AT THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL RETREAT
ON THE ECONOMY HELD AT THE STATE HOUSE
CONFERENCE CENTRE, PRESIDENTIAL VILLA,
ABUJA,
MONDAY 21ST, MARCH 2016
Protocols:
I am delighted to have the opportunity to
address this distinguished and all-important
retreat on the Nigerian economy. The purpose of
this retreat as outlined in the Retreat Concept
Notes is to generate immediate, medium and
long-term viable policy solutions to the economic
challenges facing us at both the Federal and State
levels.
2. From information at my disposal, if we
aggregate public views from the grassroots, city
dwellers, the economic managers, consumer
groups, the Unions and other stakeholders of the
economy, there is near unanimity about the ills
of our economy. But naturally, there are
divergent views about solutions.
3. I am going to throw at this gathering some
random policy options filtered from across the
spectrum of our stakeholders on four (4) selected
sectors of our economy.
These are:
Ø Agriculture
Ø Power
Ø Manufacturing
Ø Housing
4. I have not touched Education, Science and
Technology pointedly because these related
subjects require a whole retreat by themselves.
5. Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen, these
suggestions I am putting forward to you are by
no means directives but a contribution to your
discourse.
AGRICULTURE
6. On Agriculture today, both the peasant and the
mechanized farmers agree with the general
public that food production and self-sufficiency
require urgent government action. For too long
government policies on agriculture have been
half-hearted, suffering from inconsistencies and
discontinuities.
Yet our real wealth is in farming, livestock,
hatcheries, fishery, horticulture and forestry.
7. From the information available to me the
issues worrying the public today are:
· Rising food prices, such as maize, corn, rice and
gari.
· Lack of visible impact of government presence
on agriculture.
· Lack of agricultural inputs at affordable prices.
Cost of fertilizers, pesticide and labour
compound the problems of farming. Extension
services are virtually absent in several states.
· Imports of subsidized food products such as
rice and poultry discourage the growth of
domestic agriculture.
· Wastage of locally grown foods, notably fruit
and vegetables which go bad due to lack of even
moderate scale agro-processing factories and
lack of feeder roads.
8. These problems I have enumerated are by no
means exhaustive and some of the solutions I
am putting forward are not necessarily the final
word on our agricultural reform objectives:
· First, we need to carry the public with us for
new initiatives. Accordingly the Federal Ministry
of Agriculture in collaboration with the States
should convene early meetings of stakeholders
and identify issues with a view to addressing
them.
· Inform the public in all print and electronic
media on government efforts to increase local
food production to dampen escalating food
prices.
· Banks should be leaned upon to substantially
increase their lending to the agricultural sector.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should bear part of
the risk of such loans as a matter of national
policy.
· States should increase their financial support
through community groups. The appropriate
approach should be through leaders of
community groups such as farmers cooperatives.
· Provision of feeder roads by state governments
to enable more effective evacuation of produce
to markets and processing factories.
9. When I was a schoolboy in the 1950’s the
country produced one million tons of groundnuts
in two successive years. The country’s main
foreign exchange earners were groundnut,
cotton, cocoa, palm kernel, rubber and all agro/
forest resources.
10. Regional Banks and Development
Corporations in all the three regions were
financed from farm surpluses. In other words,
our capital formation rode on the backs of our
farmers. Why was farming so successful 60 years
ago? The answers are simple:
· Access to small scale credits
· Inputs (fertilizers, herbicides etc)
· Extension services.
11. Now we have better tools, better agricultural
science and technology, and greater ability to
process. With determination we can succeed.
POWER
12. Nigerians’ favourite talking point and butt of
jokes is the power situation in our country. But,
ladies and gentlemen, it is no longer a laughing
matter. We must and by the grace of God we will
put things right. In the three years left for this
administration we have given ourselves the
target of ten thousand megawatts distributable
power. In 2016 alone, we intend to add two
thousand megawatts to the national grid.
13. This sector has been privatized but has yet to
show any improvement in the quality of service.
Common public complaints are:
• Constant power cuts destroying economic
activity and affecting quality of life.
• High electricity bills despite power cuts.
• Low supply of gas to power plants due to
vandalization by terrorists.
• Obsolete power distribution equipment such as
transformers.
• Power fluctuations, which damage
manufacturing equipment and household
appliances.
• Low voltage which cannot run industrial
machinery.
14. These are some of the problems, which
defied successive governments. In our
determination to CHANGE we must and will,
insha Allah, put a stop to power shortages. Key
points to look at here are:
· Privatization. We are facing the classic dilemma
of privatization: Public interest Vs Profit Motive.
Having started, we must complete the process.
But National Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC), the regulatory authority, has a vital job to
ensure consumers get value for money and over-
all public interest is safe-guarded.
· Government to fast-track completion of
pipelines from Gas points to power stations and
provide more security to protect gas and oil
pipelines.
· Power companies should be encouraged to
replace obsolete equipment and improve the
quality of service and technicians.
MANUFACTURING
15. It grieves me that so many manufacturing
industries in the country today are groaning and
frustrated because of lack of foreign exchange to
import raw materials and spare parts.
Painful though this is, I believe it is a temporary
phase which we shall try to overcome but there
are deeper, more structural problems bedeviling
local industries which this Retreat should identify
short and long-term answers to. Chief among
these problems are:
· Inadequate infrastructure:
Power
Roads
Security
leading to increase in costs of making Made-in
Nigeria goods pricier than imports
· High Cost of Borrowing Money:
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has
been hammering on the fact that high lending
rates make manufacturing unviable and
unprofitable.
· Lack of Long Term Funding:
The Nigerian Capital Market has not completely
recovered from the 2008 worldwide crisis. Banks’
funding sources are short-term in nature due to
sources of the liabilities.
· Under-developed Science and Technology
Research: As with Agriculture, Nigeria’s industries
are in the main outmoded and industrial
practices far behind those in advanced countries.
· Unions:
We need to protect our workers from
exploitation, but unions must cooperate with
entrepreneurs to substantially improve
productivity and quality of products if we are to
move forward.
· Smuggling:
Need I say more?
16. Recommended Actions on industries are:
· The infrastructure Development Fund should be
fast-tracked to unlock resources so that
infrastructural deficiencies can be addressed.
· There should be more fiscal incentives for Small
and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which prove
themselves capable of manufacturing quality
products good enough for export.
· Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should create
more incentives and ease credit terms for
lending to manufacturers.
· A fresh campaign to patronize Made-in-Nigeria
goods should be launched. Example: all uniforms
in government-sponsored institutions should be
sourced from local factories.
HOUSING
17. Some estimates put Nigeria’s housing deficit
at about sixteen million units. In our successful
campaign to win the general elections last year
our party, the APC, promised to build a million
housing units a year. This will turn out to be a
very tall order unless:
· The Federal Government builds two hundred
and fifty thousand units. The 22 APC States
together manage another two hundred and fifty
thousand units.
· We invite foreign investors together with local
domiciled big construction companies to enter
into commercial housing building to pick up the
rest.
· The most frequent public concerns brought to
my attention are three-pronged:
1. Severe shortage of housing
2. High rents
3. Unaffordable prices for prospective buyers
especially middle and low-income earners.
· In addition, red tape, corruption and plain
public service inefficiency lead to long delays in
obtaining ownership of title documents.
· Again, there are no long term funding sources
for mortgage purposes.
18. These hurdles are by no means easy to scale,
but we must find solutions to the housing deficit.
This Retreat might start by looking at the laws.
· Laws
The relevant laws should be reviewed to make
the process of acquiring statutory right of
occupancy shorter, less cumbersome and less
costly. Court procedures for mortgages cases
should make enforcement more efficient.
Ministries of Works and Housing should upgrade
their computerization of title registration system
for greater efficiency.
· Mortgage Institutions. Achieving affordable
housing for all Nigerians will require the
development of strong and enduring mortgage
institutions with transparent processes and
procedures.
· Mortgage Re-financing Company. This institution
when fully operational should ensure adequate
support for mortgage financing.
HEALTHCARE
19. Last of the four areas that time will allow me
to say a few words, but by no means the least, is
healthcare. In my inauguration speech last May, I
remarked that the whole field of Medicare in our
country needed government attention. Dirty
hospitals! (Few sights are more upsetting than a
dirty hospital), inadequate equipment, poorly
trained nursing staff, overcrowding. The litany of
shortcomings is almost endless.
20. Sound health system is part of the
prerequisites for economic development.
Nigerians travel abroad, spending an estimated
One Billion US Dollars annually to get medical
treatment. Despite huge oil revenues the nation’s
health sector remains undeveloped.
21. In attacking the challenges of this sector we
could start with
· More funding for health centres to improve
service delivery. World Bank and World Health
Organization (WHO) could be persuaded to
increase their assistance.
· Strengthening public health propaganda in
primary prevention:
Ø Environmental sanitation
Ø Stop smoking
Ø Better dieting
Ø Exercising
And secondary prevention:
Screening and early diagnosis of diseases
· NAFDAC to intensify efforts on reducing or
stopping circulation of fake drugs in Nigeria.
· Ministry of Health should work closely with the
Nigerian Medical Association to ensure that
unqualified people are not allowed to practice.
22. Finally I urge participants to learn from the
array of experts and resource persons and learn
from the shared experiences and perspectives to
understand how other countries have
transformed their economies and livelihoods of
their people for the better. It is also the
government’s expectation that this Retreat will
highlight the respective roles and responsibilities
of each tier of government in adopting and
implementing agreed policy initiatives.
23. I hope this Retreat will come up with
practical, viable solutions and recommendations
as we chart a course for our nation in this
turbulent domestic and international economic
environment.
Thank you.
open the 2-day National Economic Council
meeting in Abuja.
In his speech at the address, Buhari urged the
council to focus on issues such as power,
housing, manufacturing and agriculture, an
advice he said was not directive, but merely to
intimidate the council of the core issues that
need its attention.
The president’s full address at the retreat is
reproduced below…
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
MUHAMMADU BUHARI
AT THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL RETREAT
ON THE ECONOMY HELD AT THE STATE HOUSE
CONFERENCE CENTRE, PRESIDENTIAL VILLA,
ABUJA,
MONDAY 21ST, MARCH 2016
Protocols:
I am delighted to have the opportunity to
address this distinguished and all-important
retreat on the Nigerian economy. The purpose of
this retreat as outlined in the Retreat Concept
Notes is to generate immediate, medium and
long-term viable policy solutions to the economic
challenges facing us at both the Federal and State
levels.
2. From information at my disposal, if we
aggregate public views from the grassroots, city
dwellers, the economic managers, consumer
groups, the Unions and other stakeholders of the
economy, there is near unanimity about the ills
of our economy. But naturally, there are
divergent views about solutions.
3. I am going to throw at this gathering some
random policy options filtered from across the
spectrum of our stakeholders on four (4) selected
sectors of our economy.
These are:
Ø Agriculture
Ø Power
Ø Manufacturing
Ø Housing
4. I have not touched Education, Science and
Technology pointedly because these related
subjects require a whole retreat by themselves.
5. Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen, these
suggestions I am putting forward to you are by
no means directives but a contribution to your
discourse.
AGRICULTURE
6. On Agriculture today, both the peasant and the
mechanized farmers agree with the general
public that food production and self-sufficiency
require urgent government action. For too long
government policies on agriculture have been
half-hearted, suffering from inconsistencies and
discontinuities.
Yet our real wealth is in farming, livestock,
hatcheries, fishery, horticulture and forestry.
7. From the information available to me the
issues worrying the public today are:
· Rising food prices, such as maize, corn, rice and
gari.
· Lack of visible impact of government presence
on agriculture.
· Lack of agricultural inputs at affordable prices.
Cost of fertilizers, pesticide and labour
compound the problems of farming. Extension
services are virtually absent in several states.
· Imports of subsidized food products such as
rice and poultry discourage the growth of
domestic agriculture.
· Wastage of locally grown foods, notably fruit
and vegetables which go bad due to lack of even
moderate scale agro-processing factories and
lack of feeder roads.
8. These problems I have enumerated are by no
means exhaustive and some of the solutions I
am putting forward are not necessarily the final
word on our agricultural reform objectives:
· First, we need to carry the public with us for
new initiatives. Accordingly the Federal Ministry
of Agriculture in collaboration with the States
should convene early meetings of stakeholders
and identify issues with a view to addressing
them.
· Inform the public in all print and electronic
media on government efforts to increase local
food production to dampen escalating food
prices.
· Banks should be leaned upon to substantially
increase their lending to the agricultural sector.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should bear part of
the risk of such loans as a matter of national
policy.
· States should increase their financial support
through community groups. The appropriate
approach should be through leaders of
community groups such as farmers cooperatives.
· Provision of feeder roads by state governments
to enable more effective evacuation of produce
to markets and processing factories.
9. When I was a schoolboy in the 1950’s the
country produced one million tons of groundnuts
in two successive years. The country’s main
foreign exchange earners were groundnut,
cotton, cocoa, palm kernel, rubber and all agro/
forest resources.
10. Regional Banks and Development
Corporations in all the three regions were
financed from farm surpluses. In other words,
our capital formation rode on the backs of our
farmers. Why was farming so successful 60 years
ago? The answers are simple:
· Access to small scale credits
· Inputs (fertilizers, herbicides etc)
· Extension services.
11. Now we have better tools, better agricultural
science and technology, and greater ability to
process. With determination we can succeed.
POWER
12. Nigerians’ favourite talking point and butt of
jokes is the power situation in our country. But,
ladies and gentlemen, it is no longer a laughing
matter. We must and by the grace of God we will
put things right. In the three years left for this
administration we have given ourselves the
target of ten thousand megawatts distributable
power. In 2016 alone, we intend to add two
thousand megawatts to the national grid.
13. This sector has been privatized but has yet to
show any improvement in the quality of service.
Common public complaints are:
• Constant power cuts destroying economic
activity and affecting quality of life.
• High electricity bills despite power cuts.
• Low supply of gas to power plants due to
vandalization by terrorists.
• Obsolete power distribution equipment such as
transformers.
• Power fluctuations, which damage
manufacturing equipment and household
appliances.
• Low voltage which cannot run industrial
machinery.
14. These are some of the problems, which
defied successive governments. In our
determination to CHANGE we must and will,
insha Allah, put a stop to power shortages. Key
points to look at here are:
· Privatization. We are facing the classic dilemma
of privatization: Public interest Vs Profit Motive.
Having started, we must complete the process.
But National Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC), the regulatory authority, has a vital job to
ensure consumers get value for money and over-
all public interest is safe-guarded.
· Government to fast-track completion of
pipelines from Gas points to power stations and
provide more security to protect gas and oil
pipelines.
· Power companies should be encouraged to
replace obsolete equipment and improve the
quality of service and technicians.
MANUFACTURING
15. It grieves me that so many manufacturing
industries in the country today are groaning and
frustrated because of lack of foreign exchange to
import raw materials and spare parts.
Painful though this is, I believe it is a temporary
phase which we shall try to overcome but there
are deeper, more structural problems bedeviling
local industries which this Retreat should identify
short and long-term answers to. Chief among
these problems are:
· Inadequate infrastructure:
Power
Roads
Security
leading to increase in costs of making Made-in
Nigeria goods pricier than imports
· High Cost of Borrowing Money:
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has
been hammering on the fact that high lending
rates make manufacturing unviable and
unprofitable.
· Lack of Long Term Funding:
The Nigerian Capital Market has not completely
recovered from the 2008 worldwide crisis. Banks’
funding sources are short-term in nature due to
sources of the liabilities.
· Under-developed Science and Technology
Research: As with Agriculture, Nigeria’s industries
are in the main outmoded and industrial
practices far behind those in advanced countries.
· Unions:
We need to protect our workers from
exploitation, but unions must cooperate with
entrepreneurs to substantially improve
productivity and quality of products if we are to
move forward.
· Smuggling:
Need I say more?
16. Recommended Actions on industries are:
· The infrastructure Development Fund should be
fast-tracked to unlock resources so that
infrastructural deficiencies can be addressed.
· There should be more fiscal incentives for Small
and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which prove
themselves capable of manufacturing quality
products good enough for export.
· Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should create
more incentives and ease credit terms for
lending to manufacturers.
· A fresh campaign to patronize Made-in-Nigeria
goods should be launched. Example: all uniforms
in government-sponsored institutions should be
sourced from local factories.
HOUSING
17. Some estimates put Nigeria’s housing deficit
at about sixteen million units. In our successful
campaign to win the general elections last year
our party, the APC, promised to build a million
housing units a year. This will turn out to be a
very tall order unless:
· The Federal Government builds two hundred
and fifty thousand units. The 22 APC States
together manage another two hundred and fifty
thousand units.
· We invite foreign investors together with local
domiciled big construction companies to enter
into commercial housing building to pick up the
rest.
· The most frequent public concerns brought to
my attention are three-pronged:
1. Severe shortage of housing
2. High rents
3. Unaffordable prices for prospective buyers
especially middle and low-income earners.
· In addition, red tape, corruption and plain
public service inefficiency lead to long delays in
obtaining ownership of title documents.
· Again, there are no long term funding sources
for mortgage purposes.
18. These hurdles are by no means easy to scale,
but we must find solutions to the housing deficit.
This Retreat might start by looking at the laws.
· Laws
The relevant laws should be reviewed to make
the process of acquiring statutory right of
occupancy shorter, less cumbersome and less
costly. Court procedures for mortgages cases
should make enforcement more efficient.
Ministries of Works and Housing should upgrade
their computerization of title registration system
for greater efficiency.
· Mortgage Institutions. Achieving affordable
housing for all Nigerians will require the
development of strong and enduring mortgage
institutions with transparent processes and
procedures.
· Mortgage Re-financing Company. This institution
when fully operational should ensure adequate
support for mortgage financing.
HEALTHCARE
19. Last of the four areas that time will allow me
to say a few words, but by no means the least, is
healthcare. In my inauguration speech last May, I
remarked that the whole field of Medicare in our
country needed government attention. Dirty
hospitals! (Few sights are more upsetting than a
dirty hospital), inadequate equipment, poorly
trained nursing staff, overcrowding. The litany of
shortcomings is almost endless.
20. Sound health system is part of the
prerequisites for economic development.
Nigerians travel abroad, spending an estimated
One Billion US Dollars annually to get medical
treatment. Despite huge oil revenues the nation’s
health sector remains undeveloped.
21. In attacking the challenges of this sector we
could start with
· More funding for health centres to improve
service delivery. World Bank and World Health
Organization (WHO) could be persuaded to
increase their assistance.
· Strengthening public health propaganda in
primary prevention:
Ø Environmental sanitation
Ø Stop smoking
Ø Better dieting
Ø Exercising
And secondary prevention:
Screening and early diagnosis of diseases
· NAFDAC to intensify efforts on reducing or
stopping circulation of fake drugs in Nigeria.
· Ministry of Health should work closely with the
Nigerian Medical Association to ensure that
unqualified people are not allowed to practice.
22. Finally I urge participants to learn from the
array of experts and resource persons and learn
from the shared experiences and perspectives to
understand how other countries have
transformed their economies and livelihoods of
their people for the better. It is also the
government’s expectation that this Retreat will
highlight the respective roles and responsibilities
of each tier of government in adopting and
implementing agreed policy initiatives.
23. I hope this Retreat will come up with
practical, viable solutions and recommendations
as we chart a course for our nation in this
turbulent domestic and international economic
environment.
Thank you.
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