AMINA HUSSAINI, Abuja
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says the administration is making efforts to improve local production while reducing the country’s dependency on imports to preserve the value of the Naira.
The Vice-President, during a webinar, themed “Economic Sustainability Beyond COVID-19” and organised by Emmanuel Chapel noted that, “The second point is that we intend to use local materials, locally produced, as much as is possible in construction. It is also a fantastic opportunity for the private sector to bring in equipment and set up factories that could be used to manufacture some of these things. It would be a massive game-changer if we are able to deliver it in the way that we planned.”
The Vice President noted that some of the reforms
According to him, “this would be more crucial in the coming years and it is entirely possible. We preserve the value of our Naira if we are able to do more locally, and we have the capacity to do this. For example, we are now doing more in terms of local production of rice, and there is more value to the farmer, with an increase in local production.”
Speaking further, Osinbajo stated that the Economic Sustainability Plan also proposes to engage more Nigerians through farming, which he said could generate direct and indirect jobs for millions of Nigerians.
“Our Economic Sustainability proposal is that we are trying to bring in 20,000 and 100,000 hectares of land per State for agricultural use, and we are looking at how to work with the states to deliver that, which means we are going to bring in far more farmers into the net and this would mean more jobs for people in the rural areas. The same for the mass housing scheme. There are major opportunities here.”
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