In the budget christened and recently presented to the national assembly; “Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity”, President Bola Tinubu has stated that the budget is at the very core of his Renewed Hope Agenda and demonstrates the administration’s commitment at stabilising the economy, improving lives, and repositioning the country for greater performance. The President informed that the journey of economic renewal and institutional development, which began 18 months ago as a nation, is very much underway.
The president revealed that the improvements witnessed in the 2024 budget had led into the current budget in terms of advancing national security, creating economic opportunities, investing in our youthful population, infrastructure development, and national re-orientation. Global economic growth for the outgoing year 2024 was projected at 3.2 per cent, the economy grew by 3.46 per cent in the third quarter of 2024, up from 2.54 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. According to the president, the new budget is targeting N34.82 trillion in revenue to fund the budget while government expenditure in the same year is projected to be N47.90 trillion, including N15.81 trillion for debt servicing.
A total of N13.08 trillion, or 3.89 percent of Gross Domestic Product, would make up the budget deficit, where projects inflation would decline from the current rate of 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent next year, while the exchange rate would improve from approximately N1,700 per US dollar to N1,500, and a base crude oil production assumption of 2.06 million barrels per day (mbpd). “Increasing agricultural production is central to our food security agenda, but insecurity has crippled this vital sector. We are supporting our farmers with funding and inputs to reignite productivity. Food security is non-negotiable. In this regard, we are taking bold steps to ensure that every Nigerian can feed conveniently, and none of our citizens will have to go to bed hungry”, Tinubu added.
Observers, including the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), have commended the robust plans of the federal government, as presented through the budget. In a statement by the Director-General of LCCI, Dr. Chinyere Almona, addressing food and energy supply chain bottlenecks, fast-tracking local petroleum production projects, and fostering alignment between monetary and fiscal policies would restore confidence in the naira and ease inflationary pressures. However, the editorial publication titled, “Agriculture Deserves Better Funding”, the Nigerian agriculture sector is said not to be receiving adequate funding to bring about the desired transformation.
Public spending in the sector is for the growth and development of the sector and to achieve the objectives of food security, employment generation and economic prosperity. This sector remains the major driver of the economy by contributing between 22% to 26% to the Gross Domestic Product, providing jobs for over 40% of the population and almost 90%, in the rural area. This is because when agriculture is accorded the right priority, it is capable to stimulating the country’s quest for diversification from over-dependence on crude oil. It is, therefore, logical to make a case for a virile agriculture sector with great potential, responsibilities and opportunities only when allocated the required funding.
“Our national budgets on agriculture have been abysmally low, when compared with the 10 per cent benchmark recommended at the ‘Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods’; a declaration at the 23rd Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in 2014. Although the AU Heads of State and Government committed themselves to the declaration, but majority of the countries, including Nigeria, have continued to fail to implement the deal. In the 10 years, budgetary allocations to the agriculture sector have not exceeded two per cent. This cannot be allowed to continue. The truth is that a nation that cannot feed itself is considered failing and suffering in the midst of plenty”, the editorial maintained.
In the 2023, national budget, only N228.4 billion is allocated to the agriculture sector, which accounts for 1.05 per cent of the total budget of N21.83 trillion. The low budgetary allocation to Nigeria’s agriculture cannot address the issues affecting farming bordering on mechanisation, rehabilitation of irrigation facilities and dams, storage, and research and development, to name a few. Today, Nigeria is one of the least mechanised farming countries in the world with the nation’s tractor density put at 0.27 hp/hectare, which is far below the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recommended tractor density of 1.5hp/hectare.
Nigeria can get it right by funding agriculture adequately to position the sector for growth, employment generation, meet domestic food demand, generation of foreign exchange through exports promotion in line within the framework of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), to positively impact smallholder farmers, climate resilience, value chain development, access to cheap credit and post-harvest losses reduction, among others, and more importantly, aid economic diversification. Conclusively, it is hoped that the 2025 budget implementation process would be smooth to ensure that the improvement recorded would boost farming, and bring more food to the table.
