PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Nigeria: Buhari vows to halt power shortages, targets 10,000 megawatts of energy
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to put a stop to the current power shortages, saying his administration has given itself the target of 10,000 megawatts distributable power.
"In 2016 alone, we intend to add 2,000 megawatts to the national grid," he said, adding that the Nigerian government would fast-track the completion of pipelines from gas points to power stations and provide more security to protect gas and oil pipelines.
Addressing participants at the National Economic Council retreat on the Nigerian economy, President Buhari said although the power sector had been privatized, it was yet to show any improvement in the quality of service.
The Common public complaints, Burahi noted, are:
• Constant power cuts destroying economic activity and affecting quality of life.
• High electricity bills despite power cuts.
• Low supply of gas to power plants due to vandalization by terrorists.
• Obsolete power distribution equipment such as transformers.
• Power fluctuations, which damage manufacturing equipment and household appliances.
• Low voltage which cannot run industrial machinery.
According to Buhari, Nigeria was facing the classic dilemma of privatization: Public interest Vs Profit Motive, saying "Having started, we must complete the process. But the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the regulatory authority, has a vital job to ensure consumers get value for money and over-all public interest is safe-guarded."
He said power companies should be encouraged to replace obsolete equipment and improve the quality of service and technicians.
Other problems militating against economic growth in Nigeria, according to Buhari, were in the domains of agriculture, manufacturing and housing.
On agriculture, Buhari said that food production and self-sufficiency required urgent government action.
"For too long government policies on agriculture have been half-hearted, suffering from inconsistencies and discontinuities.
"Yet our real wealth is in farming, livestock, hatcheries, fishery, horticulture and forestry.
"From the information available to me the issues worrying the public today are: rising food prices, such as maize, corn, rice and garri; the lack of visible impact of government presence on agriculture; and the lack of agricultural inputs at affordable prices."
Cost of fertilizers, pesticide and labour compound the problems of farming while extension services are virtually absent in several states, he noted.
Imports of subsidized food products such as rice and poultry discourage the growth of domestic agriculture, he said, lamenting the wastage of locally-grown foods, notably fruit and vegetables which go bad due to lack of even moderate scale agro-processing factories and lack of feeder roads.
"These problems I have enumerated are by no means exhaustive and some of the solutions I am putting forward are not necessarily the final word on our agricultural reform objectives.
He recommended - First, we need to carry the public with us for new initiatives. Accordingly, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the States should convene early meetings of stakeholders and identify issues with a view to addressing them.
· Inform the public in all print and electronic media on government efforts to increase local food production to dampen escalating food prices.
· Banks should be leaned upon to substantially increase their lending to the agricultural sector and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should bear part of the risk of such loans as a matter of national policy.
· States should increase their financial support through community groups. The appropriate approach should be through leaders of community groups such as farmers cooperatives.
· Provision of feeder roads by state governments to enable more effective evacuation of produce to markets and processing factories.
Buhari noted that in the 1950s, the country produced one million tons of groundnuts in two successive years.
He said the country’s main foreign exchange earners were groundnut, cotton, cocoa, palm kernel, rubber and all agro/forest resources, disclosing that regional banks and development corporations in all the three regions were financed from farm surpluses.
"In other words, our capital formation rode on the backs of our farmers."
On manufacturing, Buhari noted that so many manufacturing industries in the country today were groaning and frustrated because of lack of foreign exchange to import raw materials and spare parts.
"Painful though this is, I believe it is a temporary phase which we shall try to overcome but there are deeper, more structural problems bedeviling local industries which this retreat should identify short and long-term answers to.
Chief among these problems, he noted, are: inadequate infrastructure - power, roads, and security - leading to increase in costs of making Made-in Nigeria goods pricier than imports
According to Buhari, the Nigerian Capital Market has not completely recovered from the 2008 worldwide crisis as banks’ funding sources are short-term in nature due to sources of the liabilities.
A fresh campaign to patronize Made-in-Nigeria goods should be launched, he suggested, saying "for example, all uniforms in government-sponsored institutions should be sourced from local factories."
On under-developed Science and Technology Research, he said as with agriculture, Nigeria’s industries were in the main outmoded and industrial practices far behind those in advanced countries.
He said: "We need to protect our workers from exploitation, but trade unions must cooperate with entrepreneurs to substantially improve productivity and quality of products if we are to move forward."
Buhari recommended that the Infrastructure Development Fund should be fast-tracked to unlock resources so that infrastructural deficiencies can be addressed.
"There should be more fiscal incentives for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which prove themselves capable of manufacturing quality products good enough for export. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should create more incentives and ease credit terms for lending to manufacturers.
On housing, Buhari quoted some estimates as putting Nigeria’s housing deficit at about 16 million units.
Buhari, therefore, invited foreign investors together with local domiciled big construction companies to enter into commercial housing building to address severe shortage of housing; high rents; unaffordable prices for prospective buyers especially middle and low-income earners.
He said achieving affordable housing for all Nigerians would require the development of strong and enduring mortgage institutions with transparent processes and procedures, indicating that the Mortgage Re-financing Company, when fully operational, should ensure adequate support for mortgage financing.
On healthcare, Buhari recalled his statement on inauguration day last year, saying "the whole field of Medicare in our country needed government attention. Dirty hospitals! (Few sights are more upsetting than a dirty hospital), inadequate equipment, poorly-trained nursing staff, overcrowding.
He noted that sound health system was part of the prerequisites for economic development.
His regrets, "Nigerians travel abroad, spending an estimated US$1 billion annually to get medical treatment and despite huge oil revenues the nation’s health sector remains undeveloped."
"In attacking the challenges of this sector we could start with more funding for health centres to improve service delivery and the World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO) could be persuaded to increase their assistance."
He expressed the hope that the retreat would come up with practical, viable solutions and recommendations as the government charts a course for the nation in this turbulent domestic and international economic environment.
PANA reports that the purpose of the retreat as outlined in the Retreat Concept Notes is to generate immediate, medium and long-term policy solutions to the economic challenges facing Nigerians at both the Federal and State levels.
-0- PANA VAO/MA 22March2016
"In 2016 alone, we intend to add 2,000 megawatts to the national grid," he said, adding that the Nigerian government would fast-track the completion of pipelines from gas points to power stations and provide more security to protect gas and oil pipelines.
Addressing participants at the National Economic Council retreat on the Nigerian economy, President Buhari said although the power sector had been privatized, it was yet to show any improvement in the quality of service.
The Common public complaints, Burahi noted, are:
• Constant power cuts destroying economic activity and affecting quality of life.
• High electricity bills despite power cuts.
• Low supply of gas to power plants due to vandalization by terrorists.
• Obsolete power distribution equipment such as transformers.
• Power fluctuations, which damage manufacturing equipment and household appliances.
• Low voltage which cannot run industrial machinery.
According to Buhari, Nigeria was facing the classic dilemma of privatization: Public interest Vs Profit Motive, saying "Having started, we must complete the process. But the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the regulatory authority, has a vital job to ensure consumers get value for money and over-all public interest is safe-guarded."
He said power companies should be encouraged to replace obsolete equipment and improve the quality of service and technicians.
Other problems militating against economic growth in Nigeria, according to Buhari, were in the domains of agriculture, manufacturing and housing.
On agriculture, Buhari said that food production and self-sufficiency required urgent government action.
"For too long government policies on agriculture have been half-hearted, suffering from inconsistencies and discontinuities.
"Yet our real wealth is in farming, livestock, hatcheries, fishery, horticulture and forestry.
"From the information available to me the issues worrying the public today are: rising food prices, such as maize, corn, rice and garri; the lack of visible impact of government presence on agriculture; and the lack of agricultural inputs at affordable prices."
Cost of fertilizers, pesticide and labour compound the problems of farming while extension services are virtually absent in several states, he noted.
Imports of subsidized food products such as rice and poultry discourage the growth of domestic agriculture, he said, lamenting the wastage of locally-grown foods, notably fruit and vegetables which go bad due to lack of even moderate scale agro-processing factories and lack of feeder roads.
"These problems I have enumerated are by no means exhaustive and some of the solutions I am putting forward are not necessarily the final word on our agricultural reform objectives.
He recommended - First, we need to carry the public with us for new initiatives. Accordingly, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the States should convene early meetings of stakeholders and identify issues with a view to addressing them.
· Inform the public in all print and electronic media on government efforts to increase local food production to dampen escalating food prices.
· Banks should be leaned upon to substantially increase their lending to the agricultural sector and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should bear part of the risk of such loans as a matter of national policy.
· States should increase their financial support through community groups. The appropriate approach should be through leaders of community groups such as farmers cooperatives.
· Provision of feeder roads by state governments to enable more effective evacuation of produce to markets and processing factories.
Buhari noted that in the 1950s, the country produced one million tons of groundnuts in two successive years.
He said the country’s main foreign exchange earners were groundnut, cotton, cocoa, palm kernel, rubber and all agro/forest resources, disclosing that regional banks and development corporations in all the three regions were financed from farm surpluses.
"In other words, our capital formation rode on the backs of our farmers."
On manufacturing, Buhari noted that so many manufacturing industries in the country today were groaning and frustrated because of lack of foreign exchange to import raw materials and spare parts.
"Painful though this is, I believe it is a temporary phase which we shall try to overcome but there are deeper, more structural problems bedeviling local industries which this retreat should identify short and long-term answers to.
Chief among these problems, he noted, are: inadequate infrastructure - power, roads, and security - leading to increase in costs of making Made-in Nigeria goods pricier than imports
According to Buhari, the Nigerian Capital Market has not completely recovered from the 2008 worldwide crisis as banks’ funding sources are short-term in nature due to sources of the liabilities.
A fresh campaign to patronize Made-in-Nigeria goods should be launched, he suggested, saying "for example, all uniforms in government-sponsored institutions should be sourced from local factories."
On under-developed Science and Technology Research, he said as with agriculture, Nigeria’s industries were in the main outmoded and industrial practices far behind those in advanced countries.
He said: "We need to protect our workers from exploitation, but trade unions must cooperate with entrepreneurs to substantially improve productivity and quality of products if we are to move forward."
Buhari recommended that the Infrastructure Development Fund should be fast-tracked to unlock resources so that infrastructural deficiencies can be addressed.
"There should be more fiscal incentives for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which prove themselves capable of manufacturing quality products good enough for export. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should create more incentives and ease credit terms for lending to manufacturers.
On housing, Buhari quoted some estimates as putting Nigeria’s housing deficit at about 16 million units.
Buhari, therefore, invited foreign investors together with local domiciled big construction companies to enter into commercial housing building to address severe shortage of housing; high rents; unaffordable prices for prospective buyers especially middle and low-income earners.
He said achieving affordable housing for all Nigerians would require the development of strong and enduring mortgage institutions with transparent processes and procedures, indicating that the Mortgage Re-financing Company, when fully operational, should ensure adequate support for mortgage financing.
On healthcare, Buhari recalled his statement on inauguration day last year, saying "the whole field of Medicare in our country needed government attention. Dirty hospitals! (Few sights are more upsetting than a dirty hospital), inadequate equipment, poorly-trained nursing staff, overcrowding.
He noted that sound health system was part of the prerequisites for economic development.
His regrets, "Nigerians travel abroad, spending an estimated US$1 billion annually to get medical treatment and despite huge oil revenues the nation’s health sector remains undeveloped."
"In attacking the challenges of this sector we could start with more funding for health centres to improve service delivery and the World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO) could be persuaded to increase their assistance."
He expressed the hope that the retreat would come up with practical, viable solutions and recommendations as the government charts a course for the nation in this turbulent domestic and international economic environment.
PANA reports that the purpose of the retreat as outlined in the Retreat Concept Notes is to generate immediate, medium and long-term policy solutions to the economic challenges facing Nigerians at both the Federal and State levels.
-0- PANA VAO/MA 22March2016
