President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s concern for the poor citizens and the nation since 2015 are among his greatest assets and this is why he has led the country through difficult changes. He was elected on the strength of his promise to revive and restore the economy, fight corruption and secure Nigeria from terrorism and other forms of insecurity.
Buhari’s widely acclaimed personal integrity that bespoke honesty, truthfulness, reliability and uprightness were the key qualities which endeared him to Nigerians, thus kindling hope for a new government that would make a departure from his predecessors. And Nigerians across the country are safer today than they were during the past administration.
The distinguishing characteristic of the administration is that it has demonstrated a single-minded commitment to upgrading and developing Nigeria’s transport, power and health infrastructure. The federal government has so far spent $9 billion on infrastructural projects since the commencement of the administration in 2015.
The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the federal government’s medium-term Economic Plan, was launched by President Buhari in April 2017. It charts a course for the Nigerian economy over the next four years (2017-2020). The vision of the ERGP is to restore economic growth, invest in Nigerians, and to build a globally competitive economy.
Three years down the line, Nigeria’s economy is back on the path of growth, after the recession of 2016-17 (1.95 percent growth in Q1 2018). The first quarter of 2018 saw the fourth consecutive quarterly increase in capital importation since Q2 2017. The total value of capital imported in the quarter stood at US$6.3 billion, which is a year-on-year increase of 594.03%, and a 17.11% growth over the figure reported in the previous quarter.
Just recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) declared a full-scale intervention in the nation’s foreign exchange market with its latest directive for forex disbursements, saying banks must now pay over the counter and on demand for invisible items and Bureau De Change (BDC) operators who must now participate fully in the uploaded three-time weekly auctions for them by the apex bank.
Nigeria’s Stock Market ended 2017 as one of the best performing in the world, with returns in excess of 40 percent, five (5) million new taxpayers added to the tax base since 2016, as part of efforts to diversify government revenues hence the tax revenue increased to N1.17 trillion in Q1 2018, a 51% increase on the Q1 2017 figure.
The vision of the Buhari administration for agriculture is to work with key stakeholders to build an agribusiness economy capable of delivering sustained priority by meeting domestic food security goals, generating exports, and supporting sustainable income and job growth.
The administration’s priority sectors of agriculture maintained consistent growth throughout the recession. Between 2016 and 2018, eight new rice mills have come on- stream in Nigeria with more than a billion dollars of private sector investments in the production of rice, wheat, sugar, poultry, animal feed, fertilizers, etc, since 2015.
The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria has made available N82 billion in funding to 350,000 farmers of rice, wheat, maize, cotton, cassava, poultry, soya beans and groundnut; who have cultivated about 400,000 hectares of land. Also, fourteen moribund Blending Plants were revitalized so far under the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI); with a total capacity of 2.3 million MT of NPK fertilizer.
In a country that traditionally plundered its resources and wasted its best opportunities, it is a remarkable departure that this administration continues to do more with fewer resources.
The work of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (inaugurated by President Buhari in August 2016) and the Enabling Business Environment Secretariat (EBES) resulted in Nigeria moving up 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings in 2017, and earning a place on the list of 10 Most Improved Economies.
The Treasury Single Account system was launched in 2012, but failed to gain traction until President Buhari’s executive order in August 2015. As of May 2018, the TSA system has been implemented in 92 percent of all MDAs, this has resulted in the consolidation of more than 17,000 bank accounts previously spread across deposit money banks in the country, and in savings of an average of N4 billion monthly in banking charges.
Government has also given priority to the deployment of the Bank Verification Number BVN for payroll and pension audits. The use of BVN to verify payroll entries on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) platform has so far led to the detection of 54,000 fraudulent payroll entries.
The Buhari administration has extended more than N1.9 trillion to state governments, to enable them meet their salary and pension obligations, especially in the face of dwindling oil revenues over the last two years and has released the sum of N54 billion to settle outstanding pension arrears from 2014, 2015 and 2016, as well as clear pensions claims up to March 2017.
Against the run of play of public opinion and ratings however, the Buhari administration’s third year report and factsheet should impact more on citizens and halt or sway public opinion from dangerously eroding the remnants of the goodwill of this administration.
Tanko writes from Abuja
