Find a press statement below...
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy,
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has provided a
detailed 102-page documented response to
the 50 questions posed by the House of
Representatives Committee on Finance. The
document provides, in extensive detail,
including tables and graphs, answers to the
committee’s well publicized questions.
In her response, the Minister stressed that,
in spite of many challenges which
government has acknowledged, the Nigerian
economy is showing real and measurable
progress in many areas. This can be seen in
the fact that more jobs are being created;
roads, rail and other infrastructure are
being improved; the country is saving for the
future and planning better for the present.
Continue...
The Jonathan administration, contrary to the
impression given by some critics, is making impact
in the areas that, according to credible opinion
polls, Nigerians are most passionate about.
For instance, on job creation which is a central
focus of the administration, a total of 1.6 million
jobs were created last year, according to the
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of which
250,000 were seasonal jobs created in dry
season farming in 10 northern states. In
manufacturing, the Onne Oil and Gas Free zone
created an estimated 30,000 direct and indirect
jobs. The government special intervention
programme YouWin supported young entrepreneurs,
creating over 18,000 jobs. The SURE-P
Community Services prgramme has also created
120,000 job opportunities.
The improvement in federal highways has been
confirmed by many Nigerians who travelled over
the Christmas and New Year holidays. Key
highways which have witnessed significant
progress include Kano-Maiduguri road, the Abuja-
Lokoja road, the Apapa-Oshodi road, the Onitsha-
Enugu-Port-Harcourt road and the Benin-Ore-
Shagamu road. Preliminary work has commenced
on Lagos-Ibadan road and the Second Niger
Bridge.
The Railway Modernization Programme involving
the construction of standard gauge lines is
underway. The 1,124 km Western line linking
Lagos and Kano is now functional while work on
the Eastern line linking Port Harcourt to
Maiduguri is about 36% complete. The Abuja-
Kaduna Standard Gauge line has attained 68%
completion, and the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri Line
which is presently 77% completed, will be
completed next year. The annual passenger traffic
on our railways has increased steadily: rising
from 1 million in 2011 to 5 million in 2013.
One of the issues the Coordinating Minister dealt
with is the charge, made by the Chair of the
Committee in the media that the country is
racking up debts under Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s watch
as Finance Minister. As shown in her response,
there is no substance to the charge. In fact, the
opposite is true. Right from her Senate
confirmation hearing in 2011, the Minister had
identified rising debt as a major challenge which
the country needs to confront. Under the
leadership of President Jonathan and working with
the Debt Management Office and the Budget
Office of the Fedration, the Minister followed
through with a robust approach which includes
progressive reduction of borrowing, quick
settlement of due debts and the retirement of
N75 billion of maturing bonds via a Sinking Fund
dedicated to paying off substantial bonds. These
measures have produced clear results as shown in
the reduction of borrowing from N852 billion in
2011 to N571.9 billion this year.
It is important to note that many of the 50
Questions had been adequately answered at
various fora, including meetings and open hearings
organized by the House Committee. The
Minister’s detailed response in spite of this, is a
reflection of her well known high regard for the
National Assembly as an institution.
Please see below some highlights of the
Coordinating Minister’s answers to the 50
questions.
Paul C Nwabuikwu
Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister for
the Economy and Minister of Finance
HIGHLIGHTS OF SOME ANSWERS TO THE
50 QUESTIONS
JOB CREATION
A total of 1.6 million jobs were created last
year, according to the National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS). In agriculture for instance, the
provision of inputs in 10 Northern states enabled
dry season farming and created over 250,000
seasonal jobs. season. In manufacturing, the Onne
Oil and Gas Free zone created an estimated
30,000 direct and indirect jobs. The government
special intervention programme YouWin supported
young entrepreneurs, creating over 18,000 jobs.
The Sure-community Services has also created
120,000 job opportunities.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Progress has been made on construction of the
Kano-Maiduguri road, the Abuja-Lokoja road, the
Apapa-Oshodi road, the Onitsha-Enugu-Port-
Harcourt road and the Benin-Ore-Shagamu road,
among others. Preliminary work has also
commenced on the Lagos-Ibadan road, as well as
on the Second Niger Bridge. The Railway
Modernization Programme involving the
construction of standard gauge lines is underway.
The 1,124 km Western line linking Lagos and
Kano is now functional while work on the Eastern
line linking Port Harcourt to Maiduguri is about
36% complete. The Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge
line has attained 68% completion, and the Itakpe-
Ajaokuta-Warri Line which is presently 77%
completed, will be completed next year. The
annual passenger traffic on our railways has
increased steadily: rising from 1 million in 2011 to
5 million in 2013.
INLAND WATERWAYS
We have dredged about 72 km of the lower
River Niger from Baro in Niger State to Warri in
Delta State; and completed the construction of the
Onitsha inland port; while the Baro port is
nearing completion. The result of all these is that
we now have year round navigation around the
lower Niger; and we are already witnessing an
increase in cargo volume from below 2.9 million
metric tons in 2011 to over 5 million metric tons
on the inland waterways. As in the case of the
rail transport, the number of passengers travelling
via our inland waterways has increased fourfold
from 250,000 in 2011 to over 1.3 million.
WATER RESOURCES
Key milestones recorded in 2013 include the
construction of 9 dams, which resulted in an
increase in the volume of the nation’s water
reservoir by 422MCM. Progress was made on
major projects such as the South Chad Irrigation
Project, the Bakolori Irrigation Project, and the
Galma Dam. Implementation of irrigation and
drainage programme resulted in increase of the
total irrigable area by over 31,000Ha, job
creation for about 75,000 farming families and
increased production of over 400,000Mt of
assorted irrigated food products.
AVIATION:
The 22 airports across Nigeria are being
remodeled and upgraded: in 2013, we completed
the upgrade of 11 airport terminals and work on
the remaining 11 terminals is in progress. The
Enugu Airport is now operational as an
international airport with a new terminal under
construction. We have also commenced work on
the construction of three new international airport
terminals: in Lagos, in Kano, and in Abuja.
Modern navigational and meteorological systems
were installed at our airports to improve air
safety. In addition, 6 airports namely: Jos,
Markurdi, Yola, Jalingo, Lagos and Ilorin which
are strategically located in proximity to food
baskets have been designated as perishable cargo
airports and international standards perishable
cargo facilities are being developed at these
airports. A new Cargo Development Division has
been established in FAAN to give focus to this
effort.
POWER
We have completed one of the most comprehensive
and ambitious power sector privatization and
liberation programmes globally. We have privatized
4 power generation companies and 10 power
distribution companies, and have virtually settled
all claims and entitlements of PHCN workers.
Some major cities get an average of 16-18 hours
of electricity per day in 2013. This however
dropped in November and December during the
transition we expect some teething problems and
then power supply should pick up. In 2013, we
also mobilized $1.5 billion in financing from
multilateral sources for investment and upgrade of
the transmission network in 2014 and beyond. To
promote clean energy, we also commenced
construction of the 700MW Zungeru Hydro-Power
project in 2013. We have strengthened relevant
power market intermediaries such as the Nigerian
Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), and backed
them with financing to stimulate greater private
investments in the sector.
MANUFACTURING:
We launched the National Industrial Revolution
Plan (NIRP), which focuses on industrializing
Nigeria and diversifying our economy into sectors
such as agro-processing, light manufacturing, and
petrochemicals. In the 2013 fiscal year, Nigeria
was named the #1 destination for investments in
Africa by UNCTAD (the UN Conference on Trade
and Development), attracting over $7 billion in
FDI. There were a large number of both foreign
and domestic investments in the economy, such as
by: $250m investments by Procter and Gamble in
Ogun State; $40 million in agricultural projects
by Dominion Farms. To further support the
manufacturing sector, the Government successfully
negotiated a strong Common External Tariff (CET)
agreement with our ECOWAS partners, which
would enable us to protect our strategic industries
where necessary. The Nigerian Enterprise
Development Programme (NEDEP) was initiated in
2013 to address the needs of small businesses.
Some key interventions by NEDEP include
supporting small companies with access to
affordable finance, access to markets, capacity
support, business development services, youth
training, and support in formalizing their
operations. In addition, in 2013, we reduced
business registration costs for small businesses by
50%, to help them conserve capital. Finally, as a
result of our backward integration policies, Nigeria
is now a net exporter of cement and expanded
cement output capacity from 2 million metric
tonnes in 2002 to 28.5 million metric tonnes in
2013.
AGRICULTURE:
There have been many achievements in the
agricultural sector following the launch of the
Government’s comprehensive Agricultural
Transformation Agenda program. In October 2013,
inflation fell to 7.8%, its lowest since 2008,
partly due to higher domestic food production. The
Government’s Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES)
is providing subsidizing inputs to farmers via an
e-Wallet program. In fiscal year 2013, an
estimated 4.2 million farmers received subsidized
inputs via the Government’s Growth Enhancement
Scheme. As a result, in 2013, we produced 1.1
million metric tonnes of dry season rice across 10
Northern states; and over 250,000 farmers and
youths in these States are now profitably engaged
in farming even during the dry season. The
Federal Government launched Staple Crop
Processing Zones to support investments in the
entire agricultural value chain. At present, there
are over $8 billion of private investment
commitments from agribusiness ventures such as:
Flour Mills of Nigeria, the Dangote Group,
Syngenta, Indorama, AGCO, and Belstar Capital.
In 2012, 2.2 million metric tonnes of cassava
chips were exported, exceeding the ATA’s target
by over 100% while the 40 percent substitution
of cassava for wheat has been achieved through
research and collaboration with the IITA and
Federal Institute for Industrial Research.
Similarly, there has been a decline in wheat
imports to Nigeria from an all-time high of
4,051,000 MT in 2010 to 3,700,000 MT in
2012.
HEALTH
To further invest in the human capital of our
population, we are building strong safety nets and
improving access to primary health care using the
Saving One Million Lives programme. In the 2013
fiscal year, we recruited 11,300 frontline health
workers who were deployed to under-served
communities across the country. We have reached
over 10,000 women and children with conditional
cash transfer programmes across 8 States
(Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Kaduna,
Niger, Ogun, Zamfara) and the FCT and we
intend to scale up this successful initiative. As a
result, over 400,000 lives have been saved
through our various interventions. Nigeria’s
national immunization coverage has now exceeded
80% and is yielding demonstrable results. The
Type-3 Wild Polio virus has been contained in
2013, with no recorded transmissions for more
than one year; while Guinea worm that previously
affected the lives of over 800,000 Nigerians
yearly has been largely eradicated. Facilities at
various medical centers across the country – such
as the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in
Enugu, and the University College Hospital in
Ibadan – have also been upgraded. Finally, Nigeria
has also been honoured as Co-Chair of the fourth
replenishment of the Global Fund to fight AIDS,
TB and Malaria, and I shall be co-chairing this
initiative with other selected world leaders.
EDUCATION
To improve access to education at all levels, a
number of priority investments were made in
2013. These include the construction of 125
Almajiri schools and establishment of 3 additional
Federal Universities, to bring the total number of
new Federal Universities to 12. Additionally,
special girls’ schools were constructed in 13
States of the Federation. In fiscal year 2013, we
rehabilitated 352 science and technical
laboratories while 72 new libraries have been
constructed in the Federal Unity Schools.
Furthermore, the laboratories of all 51 Federal
and State Polytechnics have been rehabilitated
and micro-teaching laboratories are being
constructed in 58 Federal and State Colleges of
Education. The Presidential Special Scholarship
programme for first class graduates has
commenced with an initial set of 101 beneficiaries.
Over 7,000 lecturers from Universities,
Polytechnics and Colleges of Education are
benefitting from scholarships to support their
doctoral training in Nigerian and overseas
institutions.
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY:
We continued our strategic focus on investing in
modern ICT technologies. We constructed 500km
of fibre-optic cable to rural areas; 3,000km
targeted for deployment in 2013/2014. A total of
266 Public Access Venues were established in
2013 – 156 Rural IT Centres, 110 Community
Communication Centres. We facilitated the
deployment of mobile communications base stations
in rural areas of Nigeria. A total of 59 Base
Stations have been installed thus far, with an
additional 1,000 planned for 2014. In addition,
we also provided wholesale internet bandwidth to
Internet Service Providers, Cyber cafes, and ICT
centres like Community Communication Centres
(CCC) in rural communities – connectivity to 12
out of 18 pilot sites completed. In 2013, we
deployed a fibre-optic high-speed internet network
to connect 27 Federal universities, and provided
computing facilities to 74 tertiary institutions and
218 public schools across the country. Finally, we
established innovation centers to support
entrepreneurs in the ICT sector, and also launched
a Venture Capital fund of $15 million for ICT
businesses.
0 comments:
Post a Comment