The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has announced
its post-COVID plans for Nigeria’s economy.
The federal government assured that it would improve the
healthcare infrastructure and economy, while creating more jobs for millions of
Nigerians in different sectors, supporting small businesses, local production
and manufacturing, as well as extending the social safety net for the most
vulnerable in society.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, stated this during his
participation as a guest panelist in the Emmanuel Chapel’s “Economic
Sustainability Beyond COVID-19” webinar.
Buhari last week Thursday at the Council Chambers received
the Osinbajo-led Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) Plan entitled
“Bouncing Back: The Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan.”
On the Buhari administration’s efforts to cushion the
effects of the pandemic on Nigerians, the Vice President stated that improving
healthcare infrastructure remains a major objective of the administration.
He said, “Out of the N500bn initial stimulus fund that is
factored into the current budget, N126bn of it is going into healthcare.
“We’ve all noted how states have risen up to the challenge
of the COVID-19 pandemic and how resuscitated healthcare facilities, new
isolation centres, new ICUs are coming up. The number of testing centres has
also increased. We are hopeful that we’ll be able to sustain that momentum.”
Osinbajo noted that one of the ways the administration is
supporting small businesses is by reducing Company Income Tax.
“In our case, our Tax-to-GDP has been extremely low, VAT in
particular. Nigeria’s 7.5% VAT rate is probably the lowest when compared with
some other African countries. For example, Kenya has about 16%, South Africa is
about 15%, Algeria has 19%. Besides, at the moment, domestic revenue
mobilization is an issue.
“A major source of revenue for government is tax. But you must
also take account of the fact that we’ve also reduced Company Income Taxes
generally, especially for small businesses, which are the engines of growth for
the country. So, there is a conscious effort to ensure that we don’t tax
businesses out of business.”
In terms of the power sector, the VP stated that one of the
proposals of the Economic Sustainability Plan was the adoption of renewable
energy, especially solar, and working with the private sector to install
mini-grids and solar home systems across the country.
He said, “We’ve done quite a bit of that already. We have in
places like Sabon Gari, Ariaria markets: a private sector deployed solar
systems that are paid for by stall owners in those markets. We’ve done
microgrid in Sokoto state. Interestingly, this is entirely private sector
driven and the consumers are prepared to pay for service. You find that they
pay even higher than the tariffs people pay for grid power.
“A private sector-driven solar power system, such as the one
we are planning as part of the Economic Sustainability plan, is one that we
think would work and stands a good chance of providing power to about 25
million (individual) Nigerian homes, places and homes where there has been no
power previously.”
Revealing plans to tackle unemployment, the VP stated that
one of the proposals by the Economic Sustainability Committee is to build
300,000 homes across the country within 12-months’ time frame, which he noted
would provide more jobs for Nigerians.
Osinbajo added that small and medium-scale local businesses
and young professionals within the construction industry would benefit
immensely from the policy.
“This is also an opportunity for us to develop the local
industry, especially the construction industry. That is exactly the plan in
developing the housing programme, because we thought it would generate the jobs
that are required now, aside from the fact that we have a housing deficit.”
“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 VP pointed out that some of the reforms the
administration is putting in place to improve the economy include massively
improving local production, while reducing the country’s dependency on imports.
“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 increase in local production.”
Osinbajo further emphasized that the Buhari administration
will expand its Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) to benefit more Nigerians.
“We think this pandemic is also an opportunity for some kind of an enhanced
welfare programme for Nigerians, so that they can at least live very decent
lives,” he said.
He added, “One of the critical things that we suggested in
the Economic Sustainability Plan is increasing or widening the safety net, the
SIPs; and in many cases, we are increasing by almost 100 per cent.
To further tackle the issue of unemployment among young
Nigerians, the VP stated that the administration intends to increase the number
of those that are being directly engaged through the N-Power scheme, which has
so far engaged over 500,000 young Nigerians.
The noted that the “President recently asked that another
million households of the extremely poor should benefit from the SIPs
Conditional Cash Transfer, of which we are already doing about a million
beneficiaries, which means they would get about N5,000 every month, which we
are doing at the moment.
“We’ve done several microcredit loans through the
Tradermoni, Farmermoni and Marketmoni schemes. And we are thinking of
increasing microcredits to petty traders, artisans, farmers etc.; we are
looking at doing almost four million new microcredit loans.
“While we are waiting for all the initiatives around
industries, creation of jobs to catch up, there is a need for us to answer the
questions around, “how do poor people survive,’ while we are waiting for the
trickle down of industries, and all of that. That’s why expanding the Social
Investment Programmes the way we are doing is important for us,” he said.
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.”
The webinar which was moderated by Prof. Konyin Ajayi, SAN,
and Dr. Chinny Ogunro, featured other panelists including, Board Chairperson of
the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala; former president of the African Development Bank, Mr. Donald
Kaberuka; and the immediate past Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi.
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