Economy

Nigeria Eyes 500,000 Hectares of Irrigated Farmland by 2030

Published

5 years ago

26/01/2020

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, has charged the top management of the ministry and its agencies to re-double their efforts towards contributing to the realisation of the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.

The Minister said one of the ways of achieving this was to key into federal government’s plan of diversifying the economy to guarantee food security and create employment opportunities for the citizens. He said the Ministry has initiated National Irrigation Development Programme which is aimed at establishing 100,000 hectares of irrigated farm land by the year 2020 and 500,000 hectares by 2030, adding that additional 1,000,000 hectares of irrigable land are to be developed by the Private Sector and state governments within the same period.

The Minister also challenged the top management of his ministry, heads of agencies and parastatals under his ministry to ensure that these targets are met, stressing his desire to accomplish some priority deliverables within 2019–2023, including to complete all priority ongoing dams and irrigation projects, finalise and implement the flood management master plan for River Niger and River Benue, aggressively implement the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Programme and achieve Open Defecation-free Nigeria by 2025, actively collaborate with private sector to create a large number of well – paying jobs for Nigerian Youths and Support the implementation of Water Management and Water Settlement Projects in the National Livestock Transportation Plan (NLTP).

Mr Adamu, who spoke at a retreat for Directors, Deputy Directors in the ministry, Executive Directors of agencies, and the Managing Directors of the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) under his watch on Thursday, January 23, 2020 in Ibom Hotel & Golf resort Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, declared that, “It is therefore imperative that this retreat discusses and proffers feasible contributions and strategies of the Water Sector towards achieving Mr President’s desire of reducing poverty in Nigeria.”

Going down memory lane, back in 2015 when the last retreat was held to fashion out Water Resources road map 2016 -2030, the Minister said the roadmap was configured into immediate and long-term strategies for the water sector.

According to him, outcome of the 2015 retreat as approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in June 2016 sharpened and guided most of its ministry’s activities in his first tenure in office, adding that the 2015 retreat was aimed at strengthening the weakness in the delivery of the ministry’s mandate and to develop a strategy that will enable sustainable positive impact in the water sector within a short period, based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework.

The roadmap includes, among others – conclusion of Draft National Water Policy, National Irrigation and Drainage Policy and National Water Policy Bills; Organizational and Manpower Review of the Ministry towards repositioning it for enhanced service delivery; Identification of Dams with Hydro Power potential for Development; Developing and implementation of a National Irrigation Development Programme; and Developing and implementing a National Water Supply and Sanitation programme to attain the SDGs to mention but a few.

In addition, Mr Adamu stated that pursuant to the roadmap, the ministry was able to record some achievements within the available resources, such as approvals through the Federal Executive Council of National Water Resources Bill, National Water Resources Policy and National Irrigation and Drainage Policy.

He stated that pursuant to the roadmap, also two departments were restructured which are now known as Department of River Basin Operations Inspectorate, headed by a Director with water resources management background; and Department of Planning Research and Statistics, which is known as Department of Water Resources Planning and Technical Support Services (WRPTSS) which is headed by a Director with engineering background.

In addition, he said he undertook technical audit of the inherited 116 major uncompleted and abandoned projects for prioritisation and completion, where it was discovered that irrigation and drainage had 38, dams had 37, while water supply had 41 uncompleted projects.

However, the Minister said substantial resources were deployed towards their completion and commissioning, noting that so far, the ministry has completed and commissioned 13 water supply projects and nine dams which were initiated and completed, and are ready for commissioning, with many irrigation projects billed to be completed between now and 2021.

Economy

Geo-Fluids, Afriland Properties Lift NASD Bourse by 0.13%

Published

1 day ago

11/01/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The duo of Geo-Fluids Plc and Afriland Properties Plc propelled the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange up 0.13 per cent on Friday, January 10.

Investors gained N1.4 billion during the trading session after the market capitalisation of the bourse ended at N1.053 trillion compared with the previous day’s N1.052 trillion, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) increased at the close of business by 4.07 points to wrap the session at 3,073.93 points compared with 3,069.86 points recorded at the previous session.

Geo-Fluids added 25 Kobo to its value to close at N4.85 per unit compared with the previous session’s N4.60 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 24 Kobo to close at N16.25 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N16.01 per share.

There was a 35.4 per cent fall in the volume of securities traded in the session as investors exchanged 4.3 million units compared to 6.6 million units traded in the preceding session, the value of shares traded yesterday went down by 37.4 per cent to N17.2 million from the N27.5 million recorded a day earlier, and the number of deals decreased by 47.2 per cent to 19 deals from the 36 deals recorded in the preceding day.

FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 1.9 million units worth N74.2 million, followed by 11 Plc with 12,963 units valued at N3.2 million, and Industrial and General Insurance (IGI )Plc with 10.7 million units sold for N2.1 million.

IGI Plc closed the day as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 10.6 million units sold for N2.1 million, trailed by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 1.9 million units valued at N74.2 million, and Acorn Petroleum Plc with 1.2 million units worth N1.9 million.

Economy

Naira Depreciates to N1,543/$1 at Official Market

Published

1 day ago

11/01/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira witnessed a depreciation on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, January 10.

According to data from the FMDQ Exchange, the local currency weakened against the greenback yesterday by 0.12 per cent or N1.80 to sell for N1,543.03/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,541.23/$1.

The pressure on the domestic currency came as the access granted to the Bureaux de Change (BDC) operators by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to purchase FX from the official market through the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) platform prepares to end next week, precisely on January 19.

The CBN had given a 42-day window to the operators to access the platform to help stabilise the Naira in December, and this expires next week.

On Friday, the Nigerian currency tumbled against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N30.78 to sell for N1,889.29/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,858.51/£1, but gained N5.48 against the Euro to finish at N1,583.81/€1, in contrast to Thursday’s rate of N1,589.29/€1.

As for the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira remained stable against the US Dollar during the trading session at N1,650/$1, according to data obtained by Business Post.

In the cryptocurrency market, it was bearish as the US economy added 256,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, topping forecasts for 160,000 and up from 212,000 in November (revised from an originally reported 227,000).

However, the readings came after a number of recent economic reports triggered a broad-market pullback across asset classes such as crypto as investors quickly scaled back the idea of a continued series of Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2025.

Cardano (ADA) fell by 3.6 per cent to trade at $0.921, Solana (SOL) slumped by 2.8 per cent to $185.93, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 1.4 per cent to $3,233.27, Litecoin (LTC) lost 1.3 per cent to finish at $103.62, Dogecoin (DOGE) shed 0.5 per cent to sell at $0.3315, Bitcoin (BTC), waned by 0.2 per cent to $94,154.43, and Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 0.1 per cent to $693.30.

On the flip side, Ripple (XRP) jumped by 1.5 per cent to settle at $2.34, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) sold flat at $1.00 each.

Economy

Customs Street Crumbles by 0.08% as Profit-Takers Take Charge

Published

1 day ago

11/01/2025

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

Profit-takers took control of Customs Street on Friday, plunging it by 0.08 per cent at the close of trading activities.

The sell-offs were across all the key sectors of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on last trading session of the week.

The insurance space went down by 1.53 per cent, the banking index depreciated by 0.41 per cent, the consumer goods sector weakened by 0.16 per cent, and the energy counter slumped by 0.08 per cent, while the industrial goods sector closed flat.

At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) tumbled by 79.68 points to 105,451.06 points from 105,530.74 points and the market capitalisation retreated by N48 billion to N64.303 trillion from N64.351 trillion.

Yesterday, investors traded 1.5 billion shares worth N19.4 billion in 12,877 deals compared with the 489.5 million shares worth N13.1 billion transacted in 13,010 deals in the preceding day, indicating a decline in the number of deals by 1.02 deals and a rise in the trading volume and value by 203.14 per cent and 48.09 per cent, respectively.

Wema Bank was the busiest stock with 976.2 million units valued at N9.8 billion, Tantalizers traded 53.0 million units worth 129.6 million, Universal Insurance sold 34.8 million units for N26.8 million, Access Holdings exchanged 33.9 million units valued at N843.8 million, and Nigerian Breweries traded 27.3 million units worth N873.3 million.

The heaviest loss was suffered by Sunu Assurances with a decline of 9.99 per cent to trade at N7.30, Eunisell shed 9.96 per cent to N17.35, SAHCO crumbled by 9.87 per cent to N30.15, DAAR Communications plunged by 9.28 per cent to 88 Kobo, and Sovereign Trust Insurance went down by 7.04 per cent to N1.32.

On the flip side, C&I Leasing gained 10.00 per cent to close at N4.51, Honeywell Flour appreciated by 9.99 per cent to N10.02, Trans Nationwide Express jumped by 9.89 per cent to N2.00, RT Briscoe rose by 9.83 per cent to N2.57, and Secure Electronic Technology grew by 9.46 per cent to 81 Kobo.

Business Post reports that the bourse ended with 33 price gainers and 25 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.