How to create thousands of jobs through agriculture, mass housing, solar power project and special public works is the focus of the government now, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said on Tuesday.
He also demanded urgency in the implementation of the stimulus package plans adopted to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic in Nigeria.
Osinbajo spoke at the Day Two of the First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The Vice President noted that though the Federal Government had commenced the implementation of the N2.3 trillion stimulus package, the economic distortions and hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic required the relevant ministers and stakeholders to expedite action on the adopted plans.
He said: “Everything that we are doing has to be done immediately. We are already in ‘Day 67’ since the plan. Nothing is going to happen by magic, we have to simply do this stuff. We got to ensure that we have the money and ensure that day by day, we are measuring our achievements and trying to ensure that we do the things that we need to do. And we simply are not favoured by time. Every single day the poverty situation and the economic distortions deepen.”
Highlighting specific funding requirements and the expected outcomes in the plan, the Vice President said “Agriculture requiring N637.2 billion funding will provide 5,000,000 jobs; the Solar power project funding requirement is N152.4 billion is expected to provide 250,000 jobs; the Mass Housing programme with a funding requirement of N217.3 billion is expected to create 1,500,000 jobs; while Public Works funding is N52 billion to provide 774,000 jobs: and N100 billion is required to provide 500, 000 jobs in the SMEs.
“I think if we are able to implement this faithfully, if we are able to ensure that we bring in the resources, then, we certainly will be able to turn around, the economic fortunes of Nigeria.
“The truth is that, if you look at stimulus packages all over the world, what has happened is that, in many economies that have been able to lessen the impact of COVID-19, the funds have been provided and they have been provided at great pains.
“If you look at the projects that we have done in Ariaria Market for example, or Sabon Gari in Kano, where these solar systems have been installed in shops, and in other establishments, there have been no default in payments. The private sector people who put these systems there, receive their pay constantly. In Sokoto also where the project has been implemented, people are happy to pay. Jobs are created, the installers, those who are servicing the system, those who are running the payment systems, these are jobs for so many Nigerians.
He described “the Mass Agriculture programme as one where we envisaged that we will be engaging many farmers. So far, we have enumerated at least 4 million farmers. So, these are farmers who are tied to their lands and we have the geo-statistics that shows where their land is and we have about four million of them. And we expect that with each state contributing acreage for farming, we will be able to do significant numbers. The plan is designed in such a way that in each one of the programmes, we are engaging as many Nigerians as possible.
“The expected outcome for Agriculture, even if each farmer employs an additional person, this will result in an additional 4 million jobs and even more jobs along the value chain. We also will be looking at developing rural roads to reduce post-harvest losses.