It’s no news that 2016 was one of the worst years for the Nigerian
economy, the country reaped its reward for ignoring previous lucrative sectors
and concentrating primarily on revenue from the Oil Sector, consequently when
Oil prices plummeted the Nigerian economy followed suit.
The Government scrambled around playing the blame game and rolling
out unsuccessful policies that further worsened the situation, at the peak of
the crisis prices of commodities shot up to the point that it became unbearable
to even prepare a pot of stew for a low income family.
At the end of the full year of 2016, GDP contracted by -1.51 per cent,This Contraction reflected the impact of the difficult year for Nigeria characterized by weaker inflation-induced consumption demand, an increase in pipeline vandalism, significantly reduced foreign reserves and a concomitantly weaker currency. Problems in the energy sector such as fuel shortages and lower electricity generation compounded the situation.
The Federal
Government and its Anchor Borrowers Programme.
On a side note the effect of the recession was not all bad, whilst
the private
and public sector workers were complaining of the hardship orchestrated by the
poor economy, some of the entrepreneurs, farmers and skilled laborers were
actually experiencing boom in their businesses. The forex crisis and rising
inflation compelled many Nigerians to resort to homemade products for survival.
It is public knowledge that before the economic recession, Nigeria
became a dumping ground for all kinds of imported products; a development that
almost killed the local industries. Today, the reverse is becoming the case.
The local industries still have a long way to go, however some seem to be
faring better than others.
The Federal Government of Nigeria in its bid to encourage participation in the agricultural sector flagged off the N40 billion CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme for farmers in Nigeria. The government set aside N40 billion out of the 220 billion Naira Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund which will be given as support for small scale farmers in Nigeria.
States who are participating in the
programme and encouraging its citizens to be involved in rice farming include: Anambra
State, which launched its Anambra stone-free Rice. Nassarawa state who repackaged
their Rice from Olam and called it, Mama’s Pride, The Lagos State and Kebbi
State launched the much anticipated Lagos-Kebbi Rice christened LAKE RICE.
All the states have recorded success
stories with Kebbi State producing about N1, 000,000 tonnes of rice in 2016
alone,4 million tonnes of rice have been produced under the A.B.P
initiative as at date and a total sum of
N33.34 billion released through 12 Participating Finance Institutions in
respect of 146,557 farmers across twenty-one (21) States cultivating over
180,018 hectares of land as at March 31, 2017.
The
Ebonyi people are predominantly farmers. They specialize mostly in Rice, Cassava
and tomato cultivations across the state. However it is their Rice farming
activities that have gained massive popularity across the nation, this tradition roots back to times when the
state was not even formed. Early in 1971, a bushel of rice was sold at 10
Naira, they had enough rice, and various
food stuff such as cassava and yam that Ebonyi
State, is fondly called “the Food Basket
of the Nation. “.
In the 1980s, they had throngs of people
coming from as far as Lagos, Benin, Port Harcourt to buy Abakaliki rice, Most
Nigerians are familiar with “Abakaliki” rice, however the presence of
stones dissuaded Nigerians who preferred imported foreign rice which was less
tedious to clean up. Consequently the purchase of Abakiliki rice reduced
tremendously.
The previous
government of Martin Elechi ignited the fire of Ebonyi Rice by sponsoring the
practical training of two contingents of over 120 Ebonyi youths at the Songhai
Centre in Benin Republic. The beneficiaries received the sum of N200m as credit
package to help them actualize their agricultural entrepreneurial potentials.
The then
administration initiated the establishment of three Modern Rice Milling
factories in the three senatorial zones of the state. They are located at
Iboko, Oso-Edda and Onuigboji, with customised machines from Satake Corporation
of Japan at the cost of over N1bn. This was in addition to the establishment of
the Ebonyi Rice world, which now massively produces and packages the popular
Ebonyi rice.
This encouraged
the present Governor Engr David Umahi, to
launch of the one-man-one-hectare policy. The government is planning to
introduce six mega-rice cities in the state and any Local Government Area (LGA)
that covers 5, 000 hectares of land for rice production , they intend to inaugurate irrigation facilities, social
amenities, rice husk power plants, rice mills, among others, in such areas with
active collaboration of the World Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria
The Governor stayed true to his word
about investing in agriculture, specifically rice production.by banning the
consumption of foreign rice in public events and banning the sale of foreign
rice in Ebonyi State, he also obtained a N2 billion naira from the Central Bank
of Nigeria to improve Rice production in the state.
N250,
000 was made available for about 7,000 youths and women to participate by way
of soft loans through the N2b loan that the state government got from CBN at an
interest of about nine percent. The government went further by taken the responsibility
of paying the nine percent thereby encouraging state citizens to take these
loans at almost zero interest rate.
Every member of the Ebonyi state cabinet has
at least two hectares of rice farm and was mandatorily compelled to encourage
farming by its citizens.
According to the Governor, this
measures were taken to curb the dependence on dwindling Federal allocation as
the long term effect would affect the State negatively, instead they are to
refocus on increasing its “IGR” and Rice Production was the main focus.
Effect
of Government Policies on Rice production.
The price of a 50kg bag of rice has
reduced from about N20,000 to just N8,000 making the meal of rice accessible to
the common man once again, Youths who were previously unemployed and despondent
have been given opportunities to become entrepreneurs or workers in the massive
value chain involved in rice production.
The
result of the agricultural programme was a financial boom for rice farmers in Ebonyi
state. People from every part of the country, come into the state to buy Ebonyi
rice, translating to a large sum of revenue to the State and its citizens.At the end of 2016, Ebonyi State stated
that it had exceeded its projected production of about 350,000 metric tonnes of
rice in 2016, currently the state is targeting producing about 500,000 metric
tonnes in 2017.
It’s amazing to see the strides achieved in Rice production and
the Agriculture sector alone in just over a year, The Federal Government in its
Economic, recovery and Growth Plan reveals its plan to diversify the Nigerian
economy further with a special focus on Agriculture and Manufacturing, The
government intends to significantly
reduce food imports and become a net exporter of key agricultural products.
The Nigerian Economy
is gradually coming out of recession with a forecast of real GDP growth of 2.5%
in 2017. It appears that after several years of the country’s dependence on
Oil, the recession has forced Nigerians out of their comfort zone and into the
deep tides of the ocean to swim with the big sharks.
Made in Nigeria
products are now competing favorably with foreign products, small businesses
are springing up daily amidst the harsh economic conditions.
In conclusion these
positive results begs the question, was the economic recession such a bad thing
after all? Or were we as Nigerians finally motivated to stop folding our hands
waiting for dollar incentives from Oil production instead refocusing our
sights on our lucrative non-oil resources, evoking inherent what we were before
we fell in love with Black Gold.
It has been a
tough couple of years, businesses have folded up, our Government have increased
taxes and we have almost squeezed our pockets dry paying for the high price of commodities,
but guess what, long term our economy will do better, we have finally looked
away from the siren that is crude oil, if we can mimic the success story of
states like Ebonyi and Kebbi, the sky will be our starting point.
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