PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, has pledged the federal government’s commitment towards a constant review and strengthening of ongoing reforms in the agriculture sector so Nigeria can regain her lost glory as a food exporter.
Addressing a delegation of the Kebbi State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, Buhari stated that Nigeria’s rice and beans imports had dropped drastically, adding that Nigeria must not just become self-sufficient in food production but a net exporter of food.
“We are not doing badly in the agriculture sector. Nigerians and indeed the world, are beginning to appreciate our efforts. We will work harder until we start exporting food. We are happy that rice and beans importation into the country have gone down by over 90 percent, and everyone can see how productive states like Kebbi turned out to be and states like Lagos, Ogun, and Ebonyi are following the example,” he said.
He said states like Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, and Sokoto had already recorded huge successes in the agricultural sector, with more youths taking interest in entrepreneurship.
Disagreeing with the huge food import bill presented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on his assumption of office, he said investigations later revealed that the figures were as a result of “fraudulent practices’’ by some elite to deplete the foreign reserves.
“When I was told that the CBN had no savings after the windfall of selling oil for more than 100 dollars per barrel for many years and production was 2.1 billion barrels per day, I did not believe them because a majority of Nigerians cannot afford imported food; they rely on what is locally grown. It turned out that 50 percent of the export bills were fraudulent, courtesy of the Nigerian elite,” he said.
President Buhari said the return of peace in the North East had facilitated the return of farmers to their farmlands in that part of the country with glaring results of high yields.