SAN FRANCISCO, June 05, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has unveiled “The Green Imperative,” a 10-year agricultural programme worth $1.2 billion and targeted at creating five million jobs and injecting $10 billion into the economy.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, both gave details about the scheme in a joint statement which they issued at a press conference in Abuja.
The project, according to the ministers is a Nigeria-Brazil bilateral agriculture development that will be implemented for over a period of five to 10 years.
They revealed that the funding will come from the Development Bank of Brazil (BNDES) and Deutsche Bank, with insurance provided by Brazilian Guarantees and Fund Managements Agency (ABGF) and the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Export Credit (ICIEC) of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and coordinated by Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV).
‘’The Buhari administration is set to revolutionise agriculture in Nigeria through a programme called ‘The Green Imperative, a Nigeria-Brazil Bilateral Agriculture Development Programme. It is the outcome of Nigeria’s decision, dating back to June 6, 2016, to enrol in Brazil’s Government-to-Government More Food International Programme (MFIP).
‘’Following that decision, and between June 2016 and December 2019, several high level ministerial and technical visits and exchanges have occurred between the two countries. During one of such visits, the Bilateral Protocol of Intention with the government of Brazil was signed in March 2017,’’ the ministers stated.
The Ministers said the programme will revolutionise agriculture in Nigeria as it would lead to the reactivation of six motor assembly plants in the six-geopolitical zones of the country for assembling tractors and other implements, with importation of the Completely Knocked Down (CKD) parts of about 5,000 tractors and numerous implements for local assembly annually for a period of 10 years.
Stressing the huge benefits of the agriculture programme to the nation, they explained that it will impact over 35 million persons nutritionally and economically, and revitalise the country’s research and extension service delivery through a five-year technology-package transfer component.
They added that the programme will also establish 142 agro-processing service centres for value addition, with one centre in each senatorial district; establishment of 632 mechanisation service centres to support primary production in the 774 Local Government Areas and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“This will create 774 service centres nationwide to mechanise our farming methods and process or add value to farm produce locally, leading to efficiency and eliminating post-harvest losses, thereby cutting down the cost of food all year round.
“The private sector operators will operate and manage all the service centres and the assembly plants. The programme will create about five million jobs and inject over $10 billion into the economy within 10 years.
‘’It will create sustainable supply chain of agricultural raw materials for our large manufacturing companies to source locally, thereby saving billions of US dollars in food-related forex. It will train about 100,000 extension workers within three years.
‘’The programme design was jointly done by Nigeria and Brazil. The honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development set up a high-level inter-ministerial committee for the bilateral programme design.
‘’In the course of the programme design, the Brazilian technical mission visited Nigeria and met with rural small-holder farmers. The Nigerian technical team also embarked on a study tour of three African countries: Ghana, Kenya and Senegal, where MFIP is being implemented to study their challenges as well as their successes or failures.
‘’The Nigerian technical team has also visited the selected assembly plants in the six geopolitical zones to determine in-country capacity to handle the assembly of a CKD-based programme of this magnitude.”
The Ministers said the federal government was committed to the project because of its positive impact on the country, calling on Nigerians to support and own it and explained that the money for the exercise would start coming in the next four weeks, through appropriation by the National Assembly.
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