Senator Abubakar Kyari, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, has dismissed the allegation of the members of the National Assembly Caucus from the North-East that the region has been excluded completely from the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) programme of the Federal Government.
At a media briefing on Saturday in Abuja, Kyari explained that in the second phase of the Programme, three States from the North-East namely Gombe, Borno and Bauchi States have expressed their interests to participate.
The Minister who went down the memory lane to trace the commencement of SAPZ in Nigeria, pointed out that in the first phase of the programme, only eight States indicated interests to participate.
He said: “We are glad that they acknowledged the very innovative nature of the SAPZ as a groundbreaking change in the agricultural development agenda and priority of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR.
“The SAPZ programme was launched in 2022 based on its conceptual design of Phase one in 2019.
“This project is a Federal Government enabled initiative with subscription by the State Governments of the Federation.
“Therefore, all State Governments were expected to individually Express Interest in the programme.”
On the selection process, the minister explained that in 2019, each state governor was notified in writing to express interest with an attached eligibility criteria that would enable them to participate in phase one of the programme, adding that upon receipt of their expression of interest, a joint team comprising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Finance, and the Development Finance Institution, in this case the African Development bank conducted a mission to each of the states to verify the fulfillment of the eligibility criteria as a selection process.
He added that at this stage, only eight States, namely Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, Imo, Cross River, and Federal Capital Territory were qualified to participate.
Kyari noted that on the assumption of office by the present administration, “we reviewed development potential of this programme under the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President and decided that no state will be left behind.
“Consequently, the Vice President’s first international mission was to Rome, Food System Summit, where he galvanised more funding to accommodate more states.
“He also embarked on a second mission to the World Food Price meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, USA where he obtained a commitment of 1 billion USD from the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) for the sole purpose of bringing on board more states.”
The minister explained that the Phase two of the Programme had already commenced in earnest, adding that he had personally communicated to all the states that are not in phase one, notifying them of the programme.
He said: “Consequently, we have received Expression of Interests from 27 States but only 10 States fully complied with the eligibility criteria which includes three States from the North-East namely Gombe Borno and Bauchi States for the first tranche of phase 2 as they will be 3 tranches of onboarding states in the phase 2.
“So, the sweeping statement by the Caucus that “the North East was completely excluded” is not correct.
“We are also confident that more States will do the needful to fulfill the eligibility criteria to enable us capture them in the second tranche funding of Phase two.
“I therefore also want to appeal to the legislators especially the North East NASS Caucus to appeal to the other Governors of the North East namely Taraba, Yobe and Adamawa to reinvigorate their interest in the Programme and to ensure they fulfil the eligibility criteria for the second phase.”
He assured that the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, has “recognised the absolute need to avoid exclusion because one of the agenda is ‘Inclusivity’ to ensure that in all we do, all segments of the country and all relevant stakeholders and groupings are carried along in the design and implementation of government programmes.”
As part of the measures to ensure inclusivity, Kyari explained that President Tinubu approved the Presidential Food System Coordination Council under the leadership of the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima,with inclusion of governors from the six geo-political zones and other critical stakeholders across the zones.
“This is in addition to the statutory National Economic Council.
“The essence is to not only ensure the participation of all tiers of government but to guarantee that no State is excluded from the design and implementation of all our agricultural and food security programmes and initiatives,” he said.
