Agriculture ’ll Create 3.5m Jobs By 2015 Fans of the Super Eagles at the on-going AFCON in South Africa

President Goodluck Jonathan  yesterday, said that his administration had embarked on policy and institutional reforms aimed at creating about 3.5 million new jobs in agriculture and allied industries by 2015.
Jonathan spoke in Geneva, Switzerland, at the formal opening of a meeting with members of the Eminent Persons Group on the Transformation of the country’s Agricultural Sector.
This is contained in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja and made available to State House correspondents by Dr Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.
Jonathan said that 20 million metric tonnes of food would also be added to the domestic food supply.
He said that the administration’s objective was to build on the country’s “tremendous natural resources” and reverse the decline in the productivity of the sector due to the discovery of oil.
“Such a shift will not only reduce the billions of dollars we spend in importing basic food items, but will also create millions of jobs, especially for our youths.
“This shift will also drive agricultural industrialisation as more agro-allied enterprises are established to process and add value to local foods for domestic and international markets,” he said.
The President told the gathering that his administration was wholly committed to a government-enabled private sector driven transformation of the nation’s agricultural sector.
“Government will continue to support public-private sector partnerships that reduce the costs of doing business in Nigeria, especially by providing critical infrastructure such as power, water and roads.
“This is why my government is developing Staple Crop Processing Zones as a new framework for attracting the private sector into areas of high food production, to process and add value to all commodities produced in Nigeria.
“We also recognise the need to accelerate investments in research and development and take advantage of modern technologies, including bio-technology and ICT technologies that will expand possibilities for our farmers,” he said.
The President said that the initiative to transform Nigeria’s agricultural sector through the private sector was already paying off with new private sector investments worth about Eight Billion dollars now committed to agriculture.
He thanked members of the Eminent Persons Group for their support, saying that their contributions to the positive transformation of Nigeria’s agricultural sector would help to achieve food security and enhance national security.
Those present at the meeting were former UN Secretary-General and current Chairperson of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Dr Kofi Annan, and the President of the African Development Bank, Mr Donald Kaberuka, among others.