The National Economic Council (NEC) said Thursday that it is looking at a N100 billion budget for the implementation of the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP).
Speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the monthly NEC meeting in Abuja, chairman of the council’s sub-committee and Governor of Ebonyi state Mr Dave Umahi, said the federal government would bear 80 percent of the N100 billion while participating states would support with the 20 percent.
The governor said the proposed N100 billion funding would still be reviewed by the next meeting in October before an implementation date is decided.
He said the proposal was submitted to the National Economic Council by its sub committee on farmers and herdsmen crisis.
He said the National Livestock Transformation Plan was not about cows alone but had three planks including education and care for the persons displaced by farmers and herdsmen crisis.
He said state governments are also free to use animals of their choice in implementing the programme.
He said the programme remains voluntary and would accommodate only states that expressed participation interest.
Also speaking, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state said Nigeria lost $1.3 billion worth of crude oil to theft and pipeline vandalism in the first quarter of the year.
He said if the situation was not arrested immediately, losses could be as much as $2.7 billion by the end of the year.
The governor chaired the 13-man NEC sub-committee mandated to investigate the impact of attacks on oil installations in the creeks of the Niger Delta.
