House Committee’s 50 Questions: Okonjo-Iweala Provides Detailed 102-Page Answers.

House Committee’s 50 Questions: Okonjo-Iweala Provides Detailed 102-Page Response

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has
provided a detailed 102-page documented response to the 50 questions posed
by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance.
The document provides, in extensive detail, including tables and graphs,
answers to the committee’s well publicized questions.


In her response, the Minister stressed that, in spite of many challenges
which government has acknowledged, the Nigerian economy is showing real
and measurable progress in many areas. This can be seen in the fact that
more jobs are being created; roads, rail and other infrastructure are
being improved; the country is saving for the future and planning better
for the present. The Jonathan administration, contrary to the impression
given by some critics, is making impact in the areas that, according to
credible opinion polls, Nigerians are most passionate about.

For instance, on job creation which is a central focus of the
administration, a total of 1.6 million jobs were created last year,
according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of which 250,000 were
seasonal jobs created in dry season farming in 10 northern states. In
manufacturing, the Onne Oil and Gas Free zone created an estimated 30,000
direct and indirect jobs. The government special intervention programme
YouWin supported young entrepreneurs, creating over 18,000 jobs. The
SURE-P Community Services prgramme has also created 120,000 job
opportunities.

The improvement in federal highways has been confirmed by many Nigerians
who travelled over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Key highways which
have witnessed significant progress include Kano-Maiduguri road, the
Abuja-Lokoja road, the Apapa-Oshodi road, the Onitsha-Enugu-Port-Harcourt
road and the Benin-Ore-Shagamu road. Preliminary work has commenced on
Lagos-Ibadan road and the Second Niger Bridge.

The Railway Modernization Programme involving the construction of standard
gauge lines is underway. The 1,124 km Western line linking Lagos and Kano
is now functional while work on the Eastern line linking Port Harcourt to
Maiduguri is about 36% complete. The Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge line has
attained 68% completion, and the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri Line which is
presently 77% completed, will be completed next year. The annual passenger
traffic on our railways has increased steadily: rising from 1 million in
2011 to 5 million in 2013.

One of the issues the Coordinating Minister dealt with is the charge, made
by the Chair of the Committee in the media that the country is racking up
debts under Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s watch as Finance Minister. As shown in her
response, there is no substance to the charge. In fact, the opposite is
true. Right from her Senate confirmation hearing in 2011, the Minister had
identified rising debt as a major challenge which the country needs to
confront. Under the leadership of President Jonathan and working with the
Debt Management Office and the Budget Office of the Fedration, the
Minister followed through with a robust approach which includes
progressive reduction of borrowing, quick settlement of due debts and the
retirement of N75 billion of maturing bonds via a Sinking Fund dedicated
to paying off substantial bonds. These measures have produced clear
results as shown in the reduction of borrowing from N852 billion in 2011
to N571.9 billion this year.

It is important to note that many of the 50 Questions had been adequately
answered at various fora, including meetings and open hearings organized
by the House Committee. The Minister’s detailed response in spite of
this, is a reflection of her well known high regard for the National
Assembly as an institution.

Please see below some highlights of the Coordinating Minister’s answers to
the 50 questions.

HIGHLIGHTS OF SOME ANSWERS TO THE
50 QUESTIONS
JOB CREATION
A total of 1.6 million jobs were created last year, according to the
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In agriculture for instance, the
provision of inputs in 10 Northern states enabled dry season farming and
created over 250,000 seasonal jobs. season. In manufacturing, the Onne Oil
and Gas Free zone created an estimated 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The government special intervention programme YouWin supported young
entrepreneurs, creating over 18,000 jobs. The Sure-community Services has
also created 120,000 job opportunities.



INFRASTRUCTURE
Progress has been made on construction of the Kano-Maiduguri road, the
Abuja-Lokoja road, the Apapa-Oshodi road, the Onitsha-Enugu-Port-Harcourt
road and the Benin-Ore-Shagamu road, among others. Preliminary work has
also commenced on the Lagos-Ibadan road, as well as on the Second Niger
Bridge. The Railway Modernization Programme involving the construction of
standard gauge lines is underway. The 1,124 km Western line linking Lagos
and Kano is now functional while work on the Eastern line linking Port
Harcourt to Maiduguri is about 36% complete. The Abuja-Kaduna Standard
Gauge line has attained 68% completion, and the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri Line
which is presently 77% completed, will be completed next year. The annual
passenger traffic on our railways has increased steadily: rising from 1
million in 2011 to 5 million in 2013.
INLAND WATERWAYS
We have dredged about 72 km of the lower River Niger from Baro in Niger
State to Warri in Delta State; and completed the construction of the
Onitsha inland port; while the Baro port is nearing completion. The result
of all these is that we now have year round navigation around the lower
Niger; and we are already witnessing an increase in cargo volume from
below 2.9 million metric tons in 2011 to over 5 million metric tons on the
inland waterways. As in the case of the rail transport, the number of
passengers travelling via our inland waterways has increased fourfold from
250,000 in 2011 to over 1.3 million.


WATER RESOURCES
Key milestones recorded in 2013 include the construction of 9 dams, which
resulted in an increase in the volume of the nation’s water reservoir by
422MCM. Progress was made on major projects such as the South Chad
Irrigation Project, the Bakolori Irrigation Project, and the Galma Dam.
Implementation of irrigation and drainage programme resulted in increase
of the total irrigable area by over 31,000Ha, job creation for about
75,000 farming families and increased production of over 400,000Mt of
assorted irrigated food products.



AVIATION:
The 22 airports across Nigeria are being remodeled and upgraded: in 2013,
we completed the upgrade of 11 airport terminals and work on the remaining
11 terminals is in progress. The Enugu Airport is now operational as an
international airport with a new terminal under construction. We have also
commenced work on the construction of three new international airport
terminals: in Lagos, in Kano, and in Abuja. Modern navigational and
meteorological systems were installed at our airports to improve air
safety. In addition, 6 airports namely: Jos, Markurdi, Yola, Jalingo,
Lagos and Ilorin which are strategically located in proximity to food
baskets have been designated as perishable cargo airports and
international standards perishable cargo facilities are being developed at
these airports. A new Cargo Development Division has been established in
FAAN to give focus to this effort.



POWER
We have completed one of the most comprehensive and ambitious power sector
privatization and liberation programmes globally. We have privatized 4
power generation companies and 10 power distribution companies, and have
virtually settled all claims and entitlements of PHCN workers. Some major
cities get an average of 16-18 hours of electricity per day in 2013. This
however dropped in November and December during the transition we expect
some teething problems and then power supply should pick up. In 2013, we
also mobilized $1.5 billion in financing from multilateral sources for
investment and upgrade of the transmission network in 2014 and beyond. To
promote clean energy, we also commenced construction of the 700MW Zungeru
Hydro-Power project in 2013. We have strengthened relevant power market
intermediaries such as the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET),
and backed them with financing to stimulate greater private investments in
the sector.
MANUFACTURING:
We launched the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), which focuses
on industrializing Nigeria and diversifying our economy into sectors such
as agro-processing, light manufacturing, and petrochemicals. In the 2013
fiscal year, Nigeria was named the #1 destination for investments in
Africa by UNCTAD (the UN Conference on Trade and Development), attracting
over $7 billion in FDI. There were a large number of both foreign and
domestic investments in the economy, such as by: $250m investments by
Procter and Gamble in Ogun State; $40 million in agricultural projects by
Dominion Farms. To further support the manufacturing sector, the
Government successfully negotiated a strong Common External Tariff (CET)
agreement with our ECOWAS partners, which would enable us to protect our
strategic industries where necessary. The Nigerian Enterprise Development
Programme (NEDEP) was initiated in 2013 to address the needs of small
businesses. Some key interventions by NEDEP include supporting small
companies with access to affordable finance, access to markets, capacity
support, business development services, youth training, and support in
formalizing their operations. In addition, in 2013, we reduced business
registration costs for small businesses by 50%, to help them conserve
capital. Finally, as a result of our backward integration policies,
Nigeria is now a net exporter of cement and expanded cement output
capacity from 2 million metric tonnes in 2002 to 28.5 million metric
tonnes in 2013.



AGRICULTURE:
There have been many achievements in the agricultural sector following the
launch of the Government’s comprehensive Agricultural Transformation
Agenda program. In October 2013, inflation fell to 7.8%, its lowest since
2008, partly due to higher domestic food production. The Government’s
Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) is providing subsidizing inputs to farmers
via an e-Wallet program. In fiscal year 2013, an estimated 4.2 million
farmers received subsidized inputs via the Government’s Growth Enhancement
Scheme. As a result, in 2013, we produced 1.1 million metric tonnes of dry
season rice across 10 Northern states; and over 250,000 farmers and youths
in these States are now profitably engaged in farming even during the dry
season. The Federal Government launched Staple Crop Processing Zones to
support investments in the entire agricultural value chain. At present,
there are over $8 billion of private investment commitments from
agribusiness ventures such as: Flour Mills of Nigeria, the Dangote Group,
Syngenta, Indorama, AGCO, and Belstar Capital. In 2012, 2.2 million metric
tonnes of cassava chips were exported, exceeding the ATA’s target by over
100% while the 40 percent substitution of cassava for wheat has been
achieved through research and collaboration with the IITA and Federal
Institute for Industrial Research. Similarly, there has been a decline in
wheat imports to Nigeria from an all-time high of 4,051,000 MT in 2010 to
3,700,000 MT in 2012.



HEALTH
To further invest in the human capital of our population, we are building
strong safety nets and improving access to primary health care using the
Saving One Million Lives programme. In the 2013 fiscal year, we recruited
11,300 frontline health workers who were deployed to under-served
communities across the country. We have reached over 10,000 women and
children with conditional cash transfer programmes across 8 States
(Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Niger, Ogun, Zamfara) and the
FCT and we intend to scale up this successful initiative. As a result,
over 400,000 lives have been saved through our various interventions.
Nigeria’s national immunization coverage has now exceeded 80% and is
yielding demonstrable results. The Type-3 Wild Polio virus has been
contained in 2013, with no recorded transmissions for more than one year;
while Guinea worm that previously affected the lives of over 800,000
Nigerians yearly has been largely eradicated. Facilities at various
medical centers across the country – such as the University of Nigeria
Teaching Hospital in Enugu, and the University College Hospital in Ibadan
– have also been upgraded. Finally, Nigeria has also been honoured as
Co-Chair of the fourth replenishment of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB
and Malaria, and I shall be co-chairing this initiative with other
selected world leaders.



EDUCATION
To improve access to education at all levels, a number of priority
investments were made in 2013. These include the construction of 125
Almajiri schools and establishment of 3 additional Federal Universities,
to bring the total number of new Federal Universities to 12.
Additionally, special girls’ schools were constructed in 13 States of the
Federation. In fiscal year 2013, we rehabilitated 352 science and
technical laboratories while 72 new libraries have been constructed in the
Federal Unity Schools. Furthermore, the laboratories of all 51 Federal
and State Polytechnics have been rehabilitated and micro-teaching
laboratories are being constructed in 58 Federal and State Colleges of
Education. The Presidential Special Scholarship programme for first class
graduates has commenced with an initial set of 101 beneficiaries. Over
7,000 lecturers from Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education
are benefitting from scholarships to support their doctoral training in
Nigerian and overseas institutions.


COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY:
We continued our strategic focus on investing in modern ICT technologies.
We constructed 500km of fibre-optic cable to rural areas; 3,000km targeted
for deployment in 2013/2014. A total of 266 Public Access Venues were
established in 2013 – 156 Rural IT Centres, 110 Community Communication
Centres. We facilitated the deployment of mobile communications base
stations in rural areas of Nigeria. A total of 59 Base Stations have been
installed thus far, with an additional 1,000 planned for 2014. In
addition, we also provided wholesale internet bandwidth to Internet
Service Providers, Cyber cafes, and ICT centres like Community
Communication Centres (CCC) in rural communities – connectivity to 12 out
of 18 pilot sites completed. In 2013, we deployed a fibre-optic high-speed
internet network to connect 27 Federal universities, and provided
computing facilities to 74 tertiary institutions and 218 public schools
across the country. Finally, we established innovation centers to support
entrepreneurs in the ICT sector, and also launched a Venture Capital fund
of $15 million for ICT businesses.

Source Reuben Abati