..SAYS MONEY MUST BE PUT IN PEOPLE’S HANDS NOW
…OVER 8M JOBS TO BE CREATED UNDER ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE
AMINA HUSSAINI
The Federal Government, on Tuesday, ordered its cabinet ministers to urgently implement the N2.3 trillion stimulus package, in a bid to ameliorate the excruciating hardship being faced by Nigerians arising from economic meltdown.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo gave this directive while presenting an overview of the Economic Sustainability Plan at the First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat organized for Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and top government functionaries at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
Osinbajo, in his presentation which ended with the headline “The Urgency of Now”, said the economic distortions and hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic require relevant ministers and stakeholders to expedite action on the plan adopted to mitigate the effect of the crisis on the economy.
The vice president said, “Everything that we are doing has to be done immediately. We are already in ‘Day 67’ since the plan. Nothing is going to happen by magic, we have to simply do this stuff.
“We got to ensure that we have the money and ensure that day by day, we are measuring our achievements and trying to ensure that we do the things that we need to do. And we simply are not favoured by time, every single day the poverty situation and the economic distortions deepen.”
He stated that the only way out of the problem is by ensuring the funding of production, enabling consumer spending, and putting money in people’s hands.
He added, “For instance, the Mass Agriculture programme is one where we envisaged that we will be engaging many farmers. So far, we have enumerated at least 4 million farmers. So, these are farmers who are tied to their lands and we have the geo-statistics that shows where their land is and we have about 4 million of them.
“And we expect that with each state contributing acreage for farming, we will be able to do significant numbers. The plan is designed in such a way that in each one of the programmes, we are engaging as many Nigerians as possible.
“The expected outcome for Agriculture, even if each farmer employs an additional person, this will result in an additional 4 million jobs and even more jobs along the value chain. We also will be looking at developing rural roads to reduce post-harvest losses.
“Then guaranteed off-take of the produce. The way the programme is designed is that we have anchor farmers who are big farmers. They engage several thousands of farmers and they ensure that these farmers have all of their requirements and they guarantee the offtake of their produce. We have done the survey and it is very evident that so long as there is funding, we will be able to do this programme.”
For the Mass Housing Programme, the vice president explained that the government through programme is looking at building 300,000 homes across the country.
The cost of the homes, Osinbajo stated, will not exceed N2 million.
“We already have models which have been put up in Borno State by the Family Homes Fund where the figure is at about N2 million. This is the social housing scheme.”
“There are two tracks to the housing programme. There is one which is ongoing by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, and the one under the Family Homes Fund is also supervised by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
“The strategy is one that ensures that we use local materials as much as possible on each site. So, on each site, block making is going on. The making of doors, windows, tiles are going on. The whole idea is to make sure that we patronise the local industry and engage many of the young men and women who are at the moment out of work.
“One of the critical success indicators for us will be the number of young engineers, builders who are engaged in these projects. So, we are opening up the space for them and ensuring that they are able to bid for the jobs so that the jobs are not given to big contractors who will take it all up. There will be some big contractors who are supervising smaller businesses and builders,” the vice president said.
In addition, he said the government is also looking at funding from the structured loans of the CBN where funding of about N217 billion is being expected.
“We look at the demand, 1.5 million doors, 1.8 million windows, 7.8 million hinges, for 300,000 homes. This is huge by any standards and if we are able to focus on the local industry, we can actually start a major revolution in building in our own country and patronize local industry and ensure that our people get the jobs and the experience that they require,” he noted.
For the MSMEs and Solar Power components of the economic sustainability plan, the vice president said the solar power and MSMEs strategy is focused on creating jobs.
“For the Solar Home System, the Solar Power strategy is also focused on creating jobs. What has happened for Solar Power energy in our country is that, for those who have been following, in the past few years, we have been able to demonstrate that if we enable the private sector to install solar power in homes and businesses, government itself does not have to worry about any of these things, unlike what is happening today, where whatever happens in the power sector almost invariably becomes the problem of government.
“If you look at the projects that we have done in Ariaria Market for example, or Sabon Gari in Kano, where these solar systems have been installed in shops, and in other establishments, there have been no default in payments. The private sector people who put these systems there, receive their pay constantly.
“In Sokoto also where the project has been implemented, people are happy to pay. Jobs are created, the installers, those who are servicing the system, those who are running the payment systems, these are jobs for so many Nigerians.
“So, using that same strategy, we will be enabling about 5 million solar home systems to be installed across the country. What government will do is to provide the loans through the CBN supported structured loans to the manufacturers of these solar home systems, and many of them are assembled locally.
“We are already working with these providers of the facilities. One other point is that the World Bank is working closely with us, and supporting the scheme so that once we are able to get fully out there, if we are able to do all of the 5 million homes, we should be able to provide 250,000 new jobs in low and high skilled categories, 25 million individuals with new or improved access to electricity. We are looking at 5 individuals per home,” the Vice President added.
Over 8 million jobs are being targeted by the government to be created under the economic sustainability plan.
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