Osinbajo, who was represented by the Director-General, National Automotive Design and Development Council, Jelani Aliyu, disclosed this at the 19th Abuja Motor Fair on Tuesday.
importation
Nigeria To Ban Importation Of Milk In 2022 – Agric Minister
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono has said that Nigeria would ban the importation of milk in the country in two years time.
Alhaji Nanono disclosed during a press conference marking this year’s World Food Day celebration.
The Minister expressed dissatisfaction how Nigeria with a livestock asset of N33 trillion and about 25 million cows would continue to import about 1.8 billion litres of milk which it consumes annually.
He said: “We have a livestock industry with an asset of nearly N33 trillion, we are planning in this Ministry watch my word, in the next 2 years, we will ban importation milk in this country because we have 25 million cows in this country, we consume 5 million litres per day”.
Furthermore, the Minister said efforts were being made by the government to eradicate hunger and poverty through a robust food production system.
He, however, said to boost food production, Nigeria curbed imports which consequently increased rice production, thereby placing the country as the largest producer of rice in Africa.
Read Also: Rice importation cut down by 90% – FG
“As a nation, we consider the relevance of eradicating poverty and hunger and transforming our food production systems to ensure sustainable food security. Significant progress has therefore been made to improve agricultural productivity since the inception of the present administration.
“To boost food security, Nigeria has curbed imports and has established a robust rice production programme to encourage more rice production at home.
Nigerians spend $8b annually on importation of vehicles – Osinbajo
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, said in Abuja that Nigerians spent about 8 billion dollars, annually, on importation of vehicles.
Osinbajo, who was represented by the Director-General, National Automotive Design and Development Council, Jelani Aliyu, disclosed this at the 19th Abuja Motor Fair on Tuesday.
He said: “The government is fully committed to industrialisation and the mining sector to enable it create direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians.
“About 8 billion dollars goes to overseas for importation of vehicles while Nigerians are suffering, also most of the used vehicles imported are unsafe and not good for the citizens.’’
Osinbajo said that government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Volkswagen group to develop an automotive hub in Nigeria.
He said that the MoU was a major step toward the development of a robust automotive industry, to contribute to the continuous economic development of the country.
Osinbajo also said that government believed in the strategic and catalytic role of the automotive industry in the diversification of the Nigerian economy.
According to him, 3,200 youths have been empowered through the N-Power Graduate Skills Acquisition Programme, adding that the programme will be expanded and made better to benefit more Nigerian youths.
He said that N-power was a Federal Government initiative on job creation and empowerment initiative of the Social Investment Programme.
Osinbajo said that the Nnewi automotive parts industrial park had got its master plan and would soon be functional.
He said that government would work with motor manufacturers and stakeholders to ensure that used cars were faced out of the country.
Demola Ade-Ojo, Managing Director, JAC Motors said that increased importation of used cars would affect the production of new vehicles in the country.
He advised government and the stakeholders to work together to ensure that new cars being assembling in the country were affordable.