The National Assembly and ActionAid Nigeria, one of the leading civil society advocacy groups committed to transparency in public finance, at the weekend disclosed that they were collaborating on allocation of 10 percent of Federal Government’s annual budget to agriculture to ensure Nigeria meets its commitment to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
The Country Director of the civil society organisation (CSO), Mrs, Ene Obi, gave this hint at the National Parliamentary briefing organised by her organisation in collaboration with the House of Representatives and Senate Committees on Agriculture on Nigeria’s Performance in the 3rd Biennial Review (BR) Report at the weekend in Abuja.
Obi explained that the briefing was aimed at Scaling-Up Public Investments in Agriculture (SUPIA2) Project implemented by ActionAid Nigeria and ActionAid International.
Specifically, she explained that the CSO’s collaboration with the National Assembly would increase public investments in agriculture, both in terms of political and budget commitment to drive inclusive, lasting agricultural transformation at the national and sub-national levels in the country.
According to her, the two legislative committees have a great opportunity based on their oversight functions to bridge the budgetary gaps in moving the agricultural sector forward.
Obi clarified: “For Nigeria to be on track in meeting the 2014 Malabo Declaration Commitments the lawmakers should impress upon the three tiers of government to commit 10 per cent of their annual budgets to the agriculture sector. This will require to support at least six per cent growth rate for the sector as postulated in the CAADP framework.
“Investments should focus on strategic areas of extension services, access to credit by women and youth in agriculture, appropriate labour-saving technologies, inputs, post-harvest losses reduction supports (processing facilities, storage facilities, trainings, market access) and climate resilience.
“The project also seeks to catalyse increased quantity and improved quality of public investment in agriculture through enhanced citizens’ participation in evidence-based policy making to increase the productivity and well-being of smallholder farmers.
“This parliamentary briefing will serve as an avenue to brief the committees on Nigeria’s past and current performance in the BR and provide recommendations that will help improve its performance towards meeting the Malabo commitment”, the Country Director added.
Obi advised the lawmakers to constantly abreast with the programmes in order to support the review of the proposed agriculture in line with the Malabo indicators that countries report to in the BR to the African Union.
Speaking at the briefing session, the Chairman House Committee on Agricultural Production and Services, Hon. Dandutse Mohammed, assured the commitment of the Legislature to adequate oversight function to ensure that budgetary allocation to the agriculture.
Specifically, the lawmaker assured that the two committees would ensure that budget lines, programmes and activities that federal and state ministries of agriculture were executed in line with the Malabo Declaration indicators.
The Malabo on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods of 2013, which was far more comprehensive in its provisions that the Maputo Declaration of 2003 of which Nigeria was a signatory, reaffirms the central commitment of the Maputo era, namely to allocate 10% of public resources to agriculture.
It also specifies more clearly a range of commitments in agriculture, such as increased irrigation and mechanisation or curtailing post-harvest losses among others.
So, in contrast to the Maputo Declaration, it contains many more commitments in areas like infrastructure, natural resources, land tenure, trade and nutrition.
