Nigeria to attract N2trn yearly as NEC approves livestock plan

The Federal Government has disclosed that it will earn a whopping N2 trillion annually from National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) approved on Thursday by the National Economic Council (NEC). According to the council, the NLTP would also curtail the recurring crisis between farmers and herders in the country. Speaking to State House Correspondents, on Thursday, at the end of the meeting, Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu, said the development plan would attracts N2 trillion into the country’s livestock sector annually. The approval was contained in a memo presented by the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, during the NEC, presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Bagudu said the council approved the plan in recognition of the importance of livestock, as an economic activity. He said the plan was designed to create the basis for leading agric business to emerge from the livestock sector, as in the farming sector. Governor Bagudu said: “NLTP has been backed up with the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government approval since 2005, because whatever we are doing in the livestock sector must incorporate the ECOWAS protocol, otherwise whatever success that is recorded in Nigeria can be complicated by the ECOWAS arrangement that we are part of. “NLTP is about creating condition to launch the peaceful transformation of the Nigerian livestock ecosystem to add at least N2trillion to the economy, ” he said. The governor said the current policies and strategic intention at both national and state levels to improve livestock production have been hampered by many obstacles. He listed the obstacles to include limited knowledge of Nigerian livestock asset by size, locations, water and insecurity. “The approach is to invest in the livestock sector to provide ranches, mitigating the escalating crisis between pastoralists and farmers. “The strategy would be supported by the development of an implementation plan which Mr. President had already approved, that provides a guiding framework to states for implementing NLTP which will be implemented in phases.” On the federation’s account, the governor said that the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, informed the NEC that the balance of funds in the accounts as at December 31, 2018 is: Excess Crude Account stood at $497,626 million; Stabilization Account – N29,672,829.47 billion while the Natural Resources Development Fund stood at N135,476,046,912.57.
Mathew Dadiya, Abuja