President Muhammadu Buhari has said that 80 percent of the rice consumed in Nigeria are produced by local farmers, bolstering the administration’s goal of consuming local content.
He shared this statistic on Tuesday at the 14th Annual Banking and Finance Conference of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Abuja.
“It is on record that 80% of rice consumed in Nigeria is now produced locally,” Buhari said.
On the intervention schemes devised by his administration, he said that over 8 million Nigerians benefited from the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) initiative.
He said, “From this number, 1.6 million poor and vulnerable households, comprising more than eight million individuals are currently benefiting from the Conditional Cash Transfer program, which pays a bi-monthly stipend of N10, 000 per household.”
Buhari listed other projects undertaken by the administration, including the delivery of solar-powered connections to households in the country.
He said, “The Solar Power Naija project was launched in April 2021 with the aim of delivering five million off-grid solar connections to Nigerian households.
“In May 2021, the Rural Electrification Agency announced the planned deployment of solar-powered grids to 200 Primary Health Centres and 104 Unity Schools nationwide.
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“Under the Family Homes Fund Limited, Social Housing programme incorporated by the Federal Government of Nigeria, more than two thousand hectares of land with title documents have been issued by 24 states with the capacity to accommodate about 65,000 new homes.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria is providing a N200 Billion financing facility, with a guarantee by the Federal Government.”
He commended the efforts of players in the banking industry for their role in driving economic growth and their contributions towards strengthening financial inclusion across the nation.
He said, “I salute the Institute and the entire banking and finance industry for the commitment towards charting a practical path for economic recovery and transformation of our country, Nigeria, and by extension Africa as epitomized by the theme of your conference.
“I commend the financial services industry for its interventions and contributions towards the promotion of financial inclusion and literacy in our country.
“And more importantly, the roles played by the banks in fostering economic growth of the country.
“I am confident that the speakers that have been carefully selected to contribute to the conference will share insights that will help individuals, businesses and governments at all levels make necessary adjustments and take the right steps towards our collective resolve to position Nigeria as one of the top economies in the world.
“We need you, the banks to drive value creation by developing new technologies, scaling payment infrastructure to serve the diversified economies expected to benefit from this Agreement.”
