Federal Government intends to create, through a new presidential initiative, 10,000 jobs for unemployed youths in each state of the Federation.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who stated this today in his speech marking the Country’s 57th Independence anniversary, explained that this would be done with the aid of Central Bank of Nigeria’s development finance initiatives.
Buhari said though the country has gone through trials and tribulations “power remains a huge problem. As of September 12, production of power reached an all — time high of 7,001 Megawatts. Government is increasing its investment, clearing up the operational and financial log jam bedeviling the industry. We hope to reach 10,000 Megawatts by 2020.”
He extolled the Federal Government Anchor Borrowers’ Programme in the release of N43.92 billion through the Central Bank of Nigeria to 13 participating institutions and 200,000 small holder farmers benefitting from 29 states of the federation as well as cultivation of rice, wheat, maize, cotton, soya-beans, poultry, cassava and groundnuts in 233,000 hectares in addition to fish farming.
“Since December last year, this administration has produced over 7 million 50Kg bags of fertilizer. Eleven blending plants with a capacity of 2.1 million metric tons have been reactivated. We have saved $150 million in foreign exchange and N60 billion in subsidy. Fertilizer prices have dropped from N13,000 per 50Kg bag to N5,500,” the President remarked.
While applauding the military for weakening most of the leadership and identified logistics bases and routes of the insurgents through targeted air strikes, he announced the establishment of a Naval presence in the Lake Chad Basin as part of the coordinated military efforts to curtail the movements or re-emergence of the sect in the area.
