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FG Agric programme: Choice of Ogun, testimony of our policy on agriculture

Published

5 years ago

January 29, 2020

Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has described the choice of the State to pioneer the Federal government programme on agriculture in the Southwest region of the country as a testimony to his administration’s policy on agriculture, which he said was aimed at ensuring food security and source of employment.

Abiodun, who stated this while receiving the Minister for Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed Sabo Nanono in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, said the State with more than 16,000 square kilometers, of which 12, 000 square kilometers which was arable, has potentials for the cultivation of food and cash crops including cocoa, cotton, palm oil among others.

Alhaji Nanono had earlier told the governor that the State has been chosen to serve as a pioneer in the Southwest for the Federal Government mechanization programme for the production of cocoa and rice in the country.

According to the Minister, “Ogun is one of the states in the southwest that we have interest in in two vital areas of cocoa, rice production and also in agricultural mechanization which is going to affect 632 Local Government Areas across the country. We will consider Ogun as one of the states that will be the pioneer in the southwest”, he noted.

Alhaji Nanono regretted that Nigeria was still planting cocoa that takes more than seven years to yield, while her neighbors have developed through the assistance of ECOWAS fund, new varieties of cocoa that yield in less than three years, saying that it was time to embrace the new methods.

He said the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has come up with a package of developing new varieties of palm oil in Calabar and cocoa in Ondo State, noting the Federal Government was still discussing with FAO to chart a new way forward.

“When we take it overall (globally), we have to forecast on new varieties of cocoa that will yield in two and a half years across the board not only in Ondo State but other States in the southwest. We are going to make the programme on cocoa a national and not a state issue.

We are going for agricultural mechanization. 632 Local Government Areas will be affected. There will be processing centers, about 140 under an agreement with the Brazilian government, with Brazilian and European Banks to finance this project but it is going to be private-sector driven.

“The Federal Government will support and guarantee the facilities for the supply of Directors and in each of the 632 Local Government, there will be service centers and these centers will entail one director, an Information Technology and administrative office, a workshop and a warehouse for raw materials and finished products”, he explained.

Abiodun who promised to support the federal government towards the successful implementation of the new programme said his administration was looking at cultivating cotton and rice as well as resuscitating its over 6,000 hectares of palm oil plantation. “We are quite happy about the opportunity that agriculture presents to us.

We are also looking at growing cotton and rice, resuscitating our palm oil plantation of about 6,000 hectares. I just want to urge you that any of these pilot schemes, the cocoa pilot schemes that is going on in Ondo or any other scheme, this is where they should come because we are the Gateway state. We will give you all the support that you require,” he said.

The Governor also assured the Minister that the State was also capable of providing people for extension services, as it already has the database of people who are interested in agriculture. Governor Abiodun also disclosed that his administration was looking for potential investors to partner the state in palm oil production, saying that the would-be investors only need to have a refinery in the state as part of the criteria for the deal.

“Ogun State is ready for you, whatever it is that you have a plan for us, we are ready, we have a job portal from which if you need 100,000 people for extension services, we can provide it immediately. We don’t have to start looking for them because we have them. What we simply did was to ensure that those that were interested in agriculture were enumerated. We have their details. We even checked their qualifications to ascertain their zeal for agriculture.

“We are looking for potential partners to come and partner with us in the area of palm oil production. We have some conditions they must meet. They must put a refinery here. We will give them an existing palm plantation and also give them additional land,” he said.

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

The Gleamer

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

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