Planning Minister pronounces drop in Nigeria food imports

ABUJA (National Planning Commission Report) – The Minister/Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman (Dr) has announced a significant reduction in the country’s food import bill.

While declaring open the ‘First Annual Planners’ Conference’ organised by the Institute of Planning in Ikeja – Lagos, the Minister added that the new National Industrial Revolution Master Plan recently developed is currently being implemented. He further inferred that Government is already taking necessary steps to initiate contingency plans for mitigating the consequences of the decline in the international prices of oil.  

According to him, the declaration was based on the assertion made by the Institute’s President/Chairman of the Governing Council, Mccarthy Ijiebor (Dr) that ‘planning is perceived as a distinct functional discipline, an intellectual field of knowledge and a field of global professional practice.’

“It is clear that the global environment is a pertinent factor in Nigeria’s development. Steady recovery in global economy is desirable to actualise the Transformation Agenda and NV20:2020. For us to benefit from globalisation, we need to intensify efforts at lessening the country’s dependence on oil and focus more on manufacturing for both local and international markets. A major challenge for macroeconomic management over the vision period is the  achievement of a diversified economic structure away from oil,” he said.

Abubakar Sulaiman informed that Government is taking necessary steps to develop contingency plans for mitigating the re-occurrence. Adding, the present administration is committed to ensuring that the domestic economy is competitive. He stated that the effort is paying off as the country’s food import bill has significantly reduced in recent years, due to the different industrial policies which have been put in place. 

The Minister urged the institute to collaborate with government at all levels to support the policy plans. He also called on participants to take advantage of the institute’s activities aimed at enabling them to know more about the concept of planning and its modalities;  noting that the private sector can key into government policies.