The Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh has expressed optimism that Nigeria is heading on the road to economic recovery through agriculture. Ogbeh made this know to newsmen while giving account of the 2016 budget implementation to the Senate Committee on Agriculture & Rural Development led by Chairman, Sen. Adamu Abdullahi who paid the ministry an oversight visit.
He however lamented the untimely release of funds and the long procurement processes required by the law to implement the budget. “The budget implementation has been slowed down by the untimely release of funds and the long procurement process as required by law which is why we could not execute the wet season GES coupled with the N67billion accrued GES debt we met on ground.”
“The N67billion GES debt we inherited alone is higher than the entire 2016 budget allocation to the Ministry of Agric. Agriculture is a time-sensitive business and late intervention in inputs to farmers is counter-productive & we are not happy.” “Having missed the wet season farming GES, we are now looking to implementing the dry season intervention once the rain stops.” “Another challenge is inadequate budget provision to execute Agric projects and the projects the Agric ministry is expected to execute.”
“We are constructing rural roads and drilling boreholes as part of our projects. One begins to wonder what the Local Governments exist to do.” Expressing optimism and hope of a turn-around in the dwindled economy especially with the support of the private sector, he said, “The good news is that the private sector is responding to agriculture in a way we have never seen in this country; They own the major rice mills. The good news is that according to the Bureau of Statistics, Agriculture still recorded a 4% growth compared to other sectors.”
“Upon the budget approval in May, we advertised, received and processed 7,000 bids; and made N70million which was paid into the TSA.” “No contract awarded yet due to the long procurement procedure which we can’t by pass. It’s about now that capital expediture is to begin. With the enthusiasm shown by private sector and Nigerians in general, we are confident of heading on the road to recovery through agric,” he concluded.
Earlier, the Senate committee chairman, Sen. Adamu while addressing the ministry said, “we are here as part of our primary responsibility to check the utilization of your budgetary allocation and for good governance.” Assuring the ministry of the Senate’s response to their plight, Adamu said “We have passed a bill to shorten the procurement process from 165 days to 112 days for speedy release of funds.”
Source: Vanguard
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