Osinbajo Call On Nigerians To Be Patient Current Government Inherited A Decayed Economy

Yemi Osinbajo, assured Nigerians that the Muhammadu Buhari administration was working round the clock to salvage the current situation.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has once again called on Nigerians to be patient with the current Federal Government as it inherited a decayed economy from the previous government.

Osinbajo gave this charge while speaking at the inauguration of the agricultural sector road map titled, ‘The Green Alternative: Agriculture Promotion Policy 2016 – 2020’, in Abuja.

He said, “The present administration came into office to meet an economy essentially in meltdown.”

According to him, the Federal Government had concluded that before the end of September this year, the Bank of Agriculture would start giving out single digit interest loans to farmers in Nigeria.

“We knew that we had to set alright the economy and put it back on the path of sustainable growth with job opportunities for our teeming population. So, one of the critical components of that plan is to position agriculture as the arrow-head of our economic recovery efforts. If we get agriculture right, we will get our economy right.

“The Green Alternative has set out strategies for resolving these challenges. I’m personally impressed that the road map does not dismiss the agricultural policy of the past.

“Just to give some obvious examples, we cannot have a policy of encouraging local production of food and on the other hand have a high tariff on imported agricultural equipment. There is no way that we can encourage local production while we allow unbridled importation of the same things that we are trying to produce”, he added.

Osinbajo observed that the financing of agriculture was also a crucial policy, adding that “with double digit interest rate at the moment, we have developed some funding options in the short term.”