Wednesday, 22 June 2016

Nigeria: Govt, States Spend 1.6% on Agriculture




Less than two percent of the N12.2 trillion total budgets of the federal and state governments will be spent on agriculture this year, Daily Trust investigations have shown.
This is happening at a time of the government's much trumpeted determination to move away from oil to agriculture as the mainstay of the economy.
The federal government's determination is reflected in its 2016 budget which, for the first time in over 40 years, is targeting more revenues from non-oil sources.
Over the past year oil prices have continued to fall and there is no guarantee its volatility will end any soon.

Analysis of the combined expenditure of the federal and 30 state governments shows that they will spend N196.33 billion (1.6 percent) on agriculture.
About half of these figures would be expended on running the bureaucracies of the agric ministries and their related agencies of forestry, rural development and water resources, among others.
This figure is far below the 2003 AU-Maputo Declaration's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which requires African countries to allocate at least 10 percent of their annual budgets to agriculture and achieve 6 percent annual growth in agricultural GDP.
CAADP is Africa's policy framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food security and nutrition, economic growth and prosperity for all, which Nigeria is a signatory.

In Maputo, Mozambique, in 2003, the African Union (AU) Summit made the first declaration on CAADP as an integral part of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
President of the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS), Ken Ukaoha said this poor agric funding contradicted the much touted diversification of the economy and job creation mantra by the two tiers of government in the face of dwindling oil revenue.

Ukaoha told Daily Trust that poor budgeting by governments had suggested that Nigeria only signed the agreement alongside other countries as a face saving measure.

He said Nigeria was still lagging behind other African countries that surpassed the Maputo agreement on agric funding.
He added that Malawi was investing about 27 percent, Zambia, Burundi and Mali (10 percent); Niger (13 percent); and Sierra Leone (3 percent) in agriculture.
Daily Trust analysis of the approved budgets shows that the federal and 36 state governments will spend about N5.33 trillion (43.7 percent of their N12.2 trillion budgets) on payment of salaries and other costs of running their bureaucracies this year.

This is coming at a time of concerns over the swollen recurrent expenditures in the face of dwindling oil revenues and low votes for development projects.
The total amount earmarked for capital projects by the central and the state governments this year is N5.04 trillion (41.3 percent); N3.3 trillion for the states and N1.75 trillion for the federal government.
The total budget carries a combined deficit of N4.5 trillion (36.9 percent), which is made up of N2.3 trillion for the states and N2.2 trillion for the federal government.
The federal government's budget of N6.06 trillion has recurrent expenditure component of N2.65 trillion (44 percent) and N1.75 trillion (29 percent) for capital projects. The remaining balance of N1.66 trillion (27 percent) was for debt servicing and statutory transfers.

Poor agric financing
Of its N6.1 trillion budget, the federal government is spending N75.80 billion (1.26 percent) on agriculture and rural development. N29.63 billion of the amount is for bureaucratic expenses, leaving N46.17 billion for capital projects.
The federal government has been allocating dismal figures to the sector since 2011. It budgeted 1.8 percent in 2011, 1.6 percent in 2012, 1.7 percent in 2013, 1.4 percent in 2014, and 0.9 percent in 2015.

The 30 states will spend N120.53 billion (2 percent) of their total budget of N6.1trillion on agriculture despite their publicised commitment to the sector. Apart from the oil producing states of the Niger Delta, the remaining states have agriculture as the mainstay of their economy.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201606141038.html

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