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President Muhammadu Buhari has described unsustainable the huge amount of resources spent annually on food imports.
According to Buhari, who spoke at Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State during the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and the take-off of dry season farming, it was wrong for Nigeria to be importing food that can be produced in the country, adding that the federal government can no longer afford N1tn spent on import annually.
He explained that with the dwindling fortunes on oil, the country has no option than to diversify.
He said: “During this period, the economy was built on agricultural activities and our gross domestic product grew steadily.
According to Buhari, who spoke at Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State during the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and the take-off of dry season farming, it was wrong for Nigeria to be importing food that can be produced in the country, adding that the federal government can no longer afford N1tn spent on import annually.
He explained that with the dwindling fortunes on oil, the country has no option than to diversify.
He said: “During this period, the economy was built on agricultural activities and our gross domestic product grew steadily.
“The discovery of oil was expected to complement our agriculture productivity. But we allowed oil to almost completely replace it.
But current trends in the international oil market have brought to fore the urgent need to diversify both the productive and revenue base of our economy and to conserve our foreign reserve by limiting our appetite for imported goods that we can easily produce locally.”
But current trends in the international oil market have brought to fore the urgent need to diversify both the productive and revenue base of our economy and to conserve our foreign reserve by limiting our appetite for imported goods that we can easily produce locally.”
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