Buhari advises African leaders on agric financing. Is he leading by example?

On January 25, President Muhammadu Buhari urged African leaders to allocate 10 percent of the national budget to the agricultural sector to promote food security.

Mr. Buhari also called on his partners to implement innovative policies that ensure citizens eat what they produce and export the surplus.

He noted that feeding Africa is important and leaders must ensure that the welfare of the people remains a priority.

”To be successful, we must strongly support farmers. There is no doubt that we need to subsidize farmers, but we need to do it transparently, eliminate rent-seeking behavior and effectively provide support to farmers,” Mr. Buhari said in the goodwill message for the Feed Africa Summit from heads of state and government.

The share of budget allocations for agriculture should be increased throughout Africa, especially for investments in critical public goods, such as research and development, infrastructure, especially roads, irrigation, and energy.

“As leaders, let us be sure that we meet the allocation of 10 percent of the budget for agriculture as agreed in the Malabo Declaration of African Heads of State and Government. We must reduce the rate of migration from villages to cities through the development of rural areas.

Mr. Buhari made this suggestion despite his administration’s failure to increase funding for Nigeria’s agricultural sector in line with the Maputo agreement of the past seven years.

Maputo declaration

TThe Maputo Declaration is an agreement reached during the second general meeting of the African Union in July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique, when African heads of state and government met to discuss food security and the development of the agricultural value chain on the continent.

Nigeria signed the agreement the following year.

In the declaration, the African Union (AU) made several important decisions on agriculture, but the most important among them was the commitment of the leaders to allocate at least 10 percent of their country’s annual national budget to agriculture to promote its growth. agricultural output at least six percent per year.

However, almost two decades after the agreement, Nigeria has failed to live up to the declaration.

Over the years, agriculture has remained the main driver of the Nigerian economy after crude oil. The sector contributes a lot to the development of the country. In the fourth quarter of 2021, agriculture contributed 24.17 percent to nominal gross domestic product (GDP).

Although Nigeria has introduced some agricultural revival policies and poverty alleviation, it has continuously underfunded the sector, leaving the country at risk of food insufficiency and slow economic growth.

In 2020, PREMIUM TIMES reported how different administrations in Nigeria failed to invest properly in the sector.

Available data reviewed by this newspaper shows that agriculture has grown at the lowest rate under Mr. Buhari’s government than any other government since the return of democracy in 1999 while the sector received the best funding in 2008 and 2009 during Umaru Yar’adua’s administration.

In 2008, the Yar’Adua government budgeted N2.92 billion for agriculture, which is 5.41 percent of the total budget, and in 2009, the budget was N3.101 billion, which is 5.38 percent of the total budget. In percentage terms, the allocation is the highest by the government so far.

Ironically, despite the current administration budgeting for agriculture, the country has recorded the highest annual budget expenditure in history under Mr. Buhari.

In the administration, the budget allocation for agriculture increased from 1.70 percent in 2017 to 2.00 percent in 2018, decreased to 1.56 percent in 2019, and 1.34 percent in 2020, before recording a slight increase (1.37 percent) in 2021.

In 2022, allocation to the sector represented only 1.8 percent of the budget, the highest in four years.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, credit to the agricultural sector was 3.26 percent and 3.36 percent of total credit to the private sector in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

When compared to the banking sector’s credit to other industries, the agricultural sector receives the lowest credit allocation from banks even though the sector’s contribution to GDP is more than other industries, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report.

The presidential spokesperson, Garba Sheu, could not be reached for comment on this report.

The experts say

Ssummit with PREMIUM TIMES, senior economist with Professional SPM, Paul Alaje, said the president’s advice should be put into an action plan here in Nigeria before it can be taken seriously by other African leaders.

“President Buhari and his advice to African leaders about allocating 10 percent of the budget to agriculture is one that is commendable. But people say charity starts at home.

“Talk is cheap, the important thing is to keep your promises. He comes from a country where 70 percent of the budget allocation is for recurrent spending.

“In fact, a significant proportion of that 70 percent is just for debt service. President Buhari and his cabinet must understand how the economy should be run. But unfortunately, I think what is missing is the ability and understanding to run the economy,” he said.

Mr. Alaje said Nigerians are still suffering from food inflation and the impact on their livelihoods has been significant.

“What we still see is food shortages and high inflation in the country. In a real sense, it is commendable to have 10 percent of the budget allocation for agriculture and to have a planned agricultural sector but unfortunately, as we know in Nigeria, we are still have a big problem in the agricultural sector,” he said.

On his part, an agricultural communication expert, Obinna Chukwuezie, said Nigeria ratified the Maputo protocol in 2004, but did nothing to ensure compliance.

“Sadly, Buhari in eight years has not allocated anything close to 10 percent to agriculture. How can he ask others to follow a protocol that he did not follow? It is sad. This is hypocritical,” he said.