FG Recommits To Economic Diversification

The Minister of Agricul
ture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has re-affirmed the  Federal government’s commitment to diversify the Nigerian economy.
In a release obtained by The Tide at the federal secretariat  in Port Harcourt on  Monday, the Minister said this would guarantee food security and enable the  growth of a multi-sectoral Nigerian economy.
The minister reassured this during a one-day assessment tour of rice farming facilities under the CBN/BOA Anchor Borrowers Rice and Wheat Production Programme in Argungu and Augie local government areas of Kebbi State.
Commending the efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) and Kebbi State Government for the successful  implementation of the programme in the State, the minister stated that  the  government would support rice  and flour millers to establish additional milling factories for the economy to thrive.
According to Ogbeh, the programme was aimed at diversifying the economy with agriculture, to end total dependence  on oil revenue.
He stressed that the federal government  would ensure food self-sufficiency, security and enable the growth of a multifaceted economy.
The Minister tasked the state government to work hard on meeting the target production of one million  metric tons of rice, maintaining that the practice whereby the federal government spends huge sums to import rice was unacceptable.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin  Emefiele who  accompanied the minister on the assessment  tour,  said the apex bank had provided  financial support to large scale rice farmers in the state to boost farming activities and food production.
Emefiele also disclosed that the bank registered 70,871 farmers in Kebbi for the Anchor Borrowers programme, who had begun the cultivation  of farmlands for the large scale production of wheat and rice.
The programme, the CBN government added, has created 500,000 jobs nationwide.
The minister was accompanied  by the Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu, Sen. Adamu Aliero and some prominent farmers.