Chief Audu Ogbeh |
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief
Audu Ogbeh has said that private sector partnership in the agriculture sector
remained vital for the country to attain food sufficiency.
Ogbeh disclosed this at the inaugural meeting of the Joint
Sector Steering Committee (JSC), organized by the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) in partnership with the agriculture ministry
yesterday in Abuja.
He stated that it was imperative for the Federal Government
to provide necessary infrastructure, control processes and oversight functions
to support the private sector.
The minister, who was represented by the ministry’s
Permanent Secretary, Dr. Shehu Ahmed emphasized that the ministry was
responsible to partner with major stakeholders to develop effective policies
that will create conducive environment for better private sector participation
in the sector.
According to him, the JSR was to provide a platform to
assess the performance and results of the agriculture sector and assist
government to set sector policies and priorities.
Ogbeh said: “The present administration has been able to put
together an agriculture promotion policy. The purpose of the policy document is
to provide a disciplined approach to building an agribusiness ecosystem that
will stem the tide of food importation through import substitution so as to
earn significant foreign exchange from agriculture.
“The private sector will remain in the lead while government
facilitates, regulates as well as provides supporting infrastructure, system,
control processes and oversight.
“It assesses how well stakeholders implemented pledges and
commitment cooperation agreements in the sector. This objective is however
consistent with the policy thrust of the present administration on
agriculture.”
Citing instances of nations that have adopted, the minister
recalled that the African Union Commission (AUC) in 2015, assisted 11 member
nations which included Benin Republic, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Kenya,
Mali, Niger, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.
He added that the mentioned countries already took steps to
strengthen mutual accountability based on findings of the JSRs conducted.
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