Less than 2% of Nigeria’s budget allocated to capital agriculture projects – Official

By Abdulkareem Mojeed | Premium Times, September 25, 2020

Less than two per cent of Nigeria’s 2019 budget was allocated to fund capital projects in the agricultural sector, an official has said.

The budget officer, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(FMARD), Okosor Oyere, disclosed this in his presentation during the just concluded two-day stakeholders’ consultative meeting on the 2021 Agricultural Budget.

The meeting, which held in Lagos from September 23 to 24, was jointly organised by ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), ONE Campaign, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and the Department of Agriculture & Water Resources of the ECOWAS Commission.

Mr Oyere said the inadequate capital funding has resulted in huge outstanding liabilities committed on critical projects.

He added that the development is at variance with the 10 per cent agreed upon by African Heads of State in the 2014 Malabo Declaration.

According to the organisers, the meeting was called to help the public understand Nigeria’s agriculture promotion policy and its connection to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) targets.

“It is also to strengthen citizens’ participation towards making 2021 Agriculture budget responsive towards food security and wealth creation and to support effective biennial reporting by Nigeria to the African Union Heads of States and Government in line with the Malabo Declaration and Commitments of 2014,” a communique endorsed by fifty organisations at the end of the programme stated.

Malabo Declaration

In June 2014, Heads of State and Governments adopted a set of concrete agriculture goals during the 23rd ordinary session of the African Union Assembly in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to be attained by 2025.