President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has reiterated his plan to provide financial stimulus for the agriculture sector with a view to regenerating the nation’s industrial division of the economy in the 2010 budget.

Senator Mohammed Abba Aji, senior special adviser to the president on National Assembly matters, while presenting the budget proposal, on behalf of Yar’Adua to the House of Representatives stated “we are establishing special intervention funds to provide credit facilities for commercial farming and support necessary agro processing linkages to resuscitate industry.”

He added, “a review of tariffs and fiscal incentives is on-going to enhance productivity in the real sector and facilitate rapid economic growth and a presidential Task Force been set up to identify the priority sectors to benefit from these measures.”

According to him, critical areas would be identified for government intervention while the ministries, departments and agencies would be made to target about 90 per cent of their allocations  to developmental projects capable of gingering the economy.

Yar’Adua stated “accordingly, the 2010 Budget provides about 90 per cent of MDAs’ capital expenditure to 5 key priority sectors, namely critical infrastructure; Human Capital Development; Local Reforms and Food Security; Physical Security, Law and Order; and the Niger Delta.”

To reduce the cost   of doing business in the country, priority has been given to key initiatives that would further bridge critical infrastructural gaps, he said.

The 2010 appropriation proposal he said was a deliberate expansion over that  of 2009 budget in order to counter the effects  of the global credit crunch on the economy as well as reduce the infrastructural gap.

While reiterating the determination of the government to meet the target of the supply of 6000 mega-watts of electricity by the end of the year, Yar’Adua disclosed that his government would focus on providing alternative routes for the transportation of goods and services across the nation.

He also said his government would invest in the upgrade of the nation’s railway networks and dredging marine waterways with a view to creating gainful employment and increasing disposable income.

According to him, many of the nation’s road projects and maintenance works which utilises direct labour were designed to create a significant number of semi-skilled and skilled jobs.

The 2010 appropriation bill is premised on the assumption of production of 2.088mbpd bench mark at $57/barrel just as the joint venture cash calls was put at $5 billion even as the exchange rate was pegged at N150 per dollar.

The target Gross Domestic Product was put at 6.1 per cent as the government is projecting inflation rate at 11.2 per cent in the 2010 fiscal year. Similarly, the Federal Government revenue budget was forecast to be N2.517trillion.