President Goodluck Jonathan has presented
his midterm report highlighting his administration’s achievements in the last
two years. The event took place at the
International Conference Centre, Abuja and was attended by Nigeria’s top public
officials.
Read the details of the
Presidency’s score card here:
POWER
• Launch of the Roadmap for
Power Sector Reform. The Roadmap launched sets out a clear implementation plan
of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act (2005) as a reaffirmation of the
commitment to resolve the power crises and setting the path for power sector
Improvement.
• The Re-instatement of
the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. The regulatory body was
strengthened with a new Chairman and Commissioners sworn in for the purpose of
providing appropriate regulatory functions for the electricity market in
Nigeria.
•The Jonathan administration
unbundled the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) into 18 successor
companies for greater efficiency and effectiveness in power generation and
distribution.
• Creation of the Nigerian
Bulk Electricity Trading Plc. The President inaugurated the CEO and board of
the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (also known as the Bulk Trader) in
August 2011. The requisite environment for private sector investment in the
Nigerian Power Sector has been created by establishing a credit-worthy offtaker
of power, NBET Plc, who provides confidence to the power generating companies
that they will be paid for power produced.
• The Jonathan administration
launched the Energy Efficiency and Energy Conservation Lighting Scheme. This is
to promote and encourage the use of energy efficient bulbs and lighting systems
in order to create an energy conservation culture
• The Federal Government of
Nigeria entered into an MOU with worldwide leaders in the power sector, General
Electric. The MoU stipulates that General Electric will invest up to 15 percent
equity in power projects in the country summing up to 10,00MW capacity by the
year 2020. General Electric also proposes to establish local packaging facility
for small aero-derivative turbines in Nigeria which will promote job creation.
• Signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding with the US- ExIm Bank. The Ex-Im Bank of the United States of
America signed an MoU with the Federal Government of Nigeria to provide an
investment window of up to $1.5BN for investors willing to invest in the
Nigerian Power Sector. This is the first time such quantum of money will ever
be made available by the US Exim Bank for a specific sector in Africa.
•The Goodluck Jonathan
administration has improved the power generation from around 2000 megawatts to
4502 megawatts in December 2012 the highest since Nigeria returned to
democratic rule in 1999.
•By July this year, power
generation will hit 6,000 megawatts and by December this year it will hit
10,000 megawatts (assurance given last week by Minister of State for Power).
•All ten Power Plants under
the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) scheme to be commissioned by the
end of this year. At the moment, majority of them have reached 95 percent
completion stage.
•Improved power supply has
been boosted in part by the emergency declared in the Gas sector last year by
President Jonathan. At the time gas supply was insufficient. But now, thanks to
the intervention by Mr. President, Nigeria now produces more gas than is
required for domestic consumption.
•For more efficient power
supply, the Jonathan administration has privatized the power distribution
companies (DISCOs) under a most transparent bid process.
•Today, large parts of an
unprecedented number of cities and towns across the country are enjoying
between 14 to 16 hours of uninterrupted power supply, except in some few areas
where localized problems of power distribution network have created bottlenecks
for smooth transmission.
AGRICULTURE
• In 2012 14 new rice mills
with capacity to process 240 metric tons of rice were set up by the private
sector while in addition, a sum of 1.2 billion dollars was secured by the
Federal Government to install 100 large scale rice processing mills to produce
2.1 million metric tons of rice annually.
•This and other initiatives
of government in 2012 resulted in the creation of about two million new jobs
among rural dwellers. In 2013, the Federal Government will implement a Young
Graduates Commercial Farmers Scheme, which will absorb 780,000 graduates in its
first phase and provide an estimated four million jobs in the agricultural
sector in the first year.
•Today, Nigeria has reached
an unprecedented 60 per cent sufficiency in rice production, a feat, which the
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) recently described as capable of
raising world rice output to a record high in the next 12 next months.
•The Federal Ministry of
Agriculture has set a clear goal to make the country self-sufficient in rice
production by 2015 and end the N 356 Billion currently spent on importing rice
annually, as well as replace up to 40% of the wheat imports for which the
country spends over N 635 Billion annually, by 2015.
• The Nigeria Agricultural
Bank is being restructured and recapitalized to provide loans to peasant
farmers at single digit interest rates. This will be the most remarkable fund
injection initiative ever undertaken by any government to empower rural peasant
farmers and create wealth for rural dwellers.
•Export of dried cassava
chips began in July 2012 and this represented the first time that Nigeria will
achieve commercial scale export of dried chips, which will earn the country
$136 million annually in foreign exchange.
•The Jonathan administration
is resuscitating the production of Cotton particularly in the Northeast and
Northwest zones of Nigeria through the provision of improved cotton seedlings,
which have been given free of charge to farmers. This will definitely result in
the resuscitation of the upstream and downstream cotton/textile subsector
before the end of 2013.
•Nigeria is the largest
producer of cassava in the world with 34 million MT produced per annum
•In the last one year
following the efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture under the Agriculture
Transformation Agenda of the Jonathan administration, around $8 billion in
private investments have been attracted to agricbusiness, crop production,
processing and other forms of value addition.
•The Jonathan administration
cleansed the rot in the fertilizer distribution system. Under the previous
system, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development procured and
distributed fertilizers to farmers. The system undermined the private sector
and only about 11 percent of the farmers received fertilizers. The rest were
sold to friends and `political farmers’ whom exported them. President
Jonathan’s intervention dismantled in 60m days, this corrupt system, which had
existed for over 40 years and fertilizers are now sold directly to farmers and
not to government.
• The Ministry launched a
Growth Enhancement Scheme, where farmers receive 50% subsidy on fertilizers,
for a maximum of two bags, through the use of their mobile phones or what we
call Electronic-wallet system (or E-wallet). In 120 days, over 1.2 million
farmers bought their subsidized fertilizers using the E-wallet system. Over 1.5
million farmers will be reached by the end of the dry season. A total of
138,802.7 metric tons of fertilizer and 10,974.78 metric tons of seeds in 517
active redemption centres out of all the 804 centres spread across all states
of the federation. The E-wallet system is the first of its kind in Africa and
already several African countries have indicated they want to implement the
Nigerian system.
• Multilateral and bilateral
agencies are providing donor-related investment support and have shown
enthusiasm for the major reforms on-going in Nigeria’s agriculture by
committing more $1 billion towards Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation
Agenda. The World Bank Group is providing $500 million. African Development
Bank (AfDB) has committed $250 million. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
has selected Nigeria as a priority country for its investment in agriculture. The
International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) has put up $80 million.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has committed
$60 million. The UK Government, through DFID has committed £37 million. The
Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ford Foundation and UNDP are providing significant
technical support facilities.
ROADS
•A total of 651km of roads
was paved in bituminous layers in 2012.
•A total of 32 Highway
projects were completed in 2012.
•Following the recent effects
of floods in some parts of the country, the administration intervened by
constructing new bridges and re-instating washed out embankments.
•The Ministry of Works on the
order of President Jonathan unveiled Operation Safe Passage, a programme aimed
at recovering deplorable sections of major roads in the country to ameliorate
the sufferings usually experienced by road users during festive seasons. Under
this programme, key roads in the six geo-political zones of the country, were
rehabilitated.
•80 projects prioritized in
2012 two have been completed, three are over 90 percent completed, five are
over 80 percent completed, eighteen are between 50-79 percent complete while
the rest are in different stages of completion.
•The radical intervention by
the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme SURE-P in the road sector in 2012 resulted
in accelerated work on the rehabilitation of the following projects:
Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja; Benin-Ore-Sagamu dual carriageway; Onitsha-Enugu-Port
Harcourt dual carriageway; Kaduna-Maiduguri dual carriageway; East-West Road
The Second Niger Bridge for which a sum of five billion naira has been set
aside.
These roads cover a distance
of 1,664 kilometres and are at various stages of completion. Most of these
projects are due for completion and commissioning in this year..
•As a major turnaround
Federal Government also terminated the concessioning agreement with Bi Courtney
company on the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan
expressway. The road rehabilitation work is currently been handled by two
construction firms and will be completed this year.
•The Jonathan administration
has entered into collaboration with multi-lateral agencies under the Road
Sector Development Team (RSDT) scheme.
•Under this framework, the
RSDT is currently implementing road rehabilitation, upgrading and maintenance,
institutional strengthening and policy reform, and road safety improvements
with the credit from the World Bank; and additional funding from the Africa
Development Bank (AfDB).
•The RSDT in collaboration
with multi-lateral agencies rehabilitated/ maintained a total of 257 kilometres
of road length in 2012. Two projects under the scheme, the Mokwa-Bida Road and
the Akure-Ilesha Road will have their contracts awarded in June.
•Also, the Ministry of Works
is currently working out modalities for the execution of the dualisation of the
Keffi-Lafia-Makurdi-Enugu (9th Mile) roads in Nasarawa, Benue and Enugu States
with funds from the Export-Import Bank of China.
AVIATION
•The administration at the
end of 2011 earmarked 22 airports for rehabilitation and reconstruction and by
the end of October 2012, over 50 percent had been commissioned for public use
with. The remaining eleven would be completed in 2013.
• In addition to remodeling,
the Jonathan administration has approved the sum of N106 billion for the
construction of five new airport terminals in Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja
and Enugu as well as six cargo terminals to be managed under a Public Private
Partnership (PPP) Scheme
TRANSPORTATION
•The Jonathan administration
inaugurated the Lagos-Kano train service, which had been moribund for almost a
decade. This is a major feat considering the long years of decay in the rail
transportation sector.
•The Eastern rail line from
Port Harcourt to Maiduguri is being rehabilitated as well as the fixing of the
Zaria/Kaura Namoda rail route
. •The Abuja to Kaduna 187
kilometre rail line is about more than 30 per cent completed.
•the Ajaokuta-Warri Standard
Gauge Rail line will be completed any time now. This will provide a less than
four-hour journey between the Middlebelt and the South South.
•The Lagos-Ibadan new gauge
rail line, which was also initiated last year is on course.
•The Federal Government has
completed three feasibility studies and commissioned three others to open new
railway corridors, which will be concessioned to local and foreign investors.
An unprecedented investment of 200 billion dollars will flow into the Nigerian
economy through these concessions in 2013 and 2014 with over 10 million new
jobs of skilled and unskilled laborers (engineers, technicians, machinists,
accountants) created in the next two years.
SURE-P PROJECTS
•In 2012 N9 billion was spent
By the Subsidy Removal and Re-Investment Programme (SURE-P)on: 500 Primary
Health Centres (PHC) across the 36 states and FCT of the Federation. Employment
and deployment of skilled Health Workers- Midwives, Community Health Workers
(CHEWs), and Village Health Workers (VHWs). Upgrading, Equipping and Supplying
of Drugs to the 500 PHCs across the six geopolitical zones are being done.
Selection of 125 General Hospitals across the 36 states and the FCT. Equipping
and upgrading their Maternity section to provide comprehensive intervention for
complicated Maternal and Child cases from the PHCs is being done.
•4,604 jobs created for
health workers in 2012.
ECONOMY
•Statistics show that Nigeria
has become the favoured destination of investors coming into Africa recording
the highest investment of $8.4billion (around 930 billion). Government’s target
is to attract $20 billion worth of foreign investments in three years.
•The Jonathan
administration’s handling of the economy led to JP Morgan Chase the reputable
American investment and Securities Company to list Nigeria on its Government
Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM). It is the second African company after
South Africa to be listed. This inclusion of Nigerian bonds could mean an
`inflow of at least $1.5 million of inflow into Nigeria’s bond market’. The
listing will also improve the profile of Nigeria’s debt market.
•The Jonathan administration
has in less than two years put Nigeria on the path of economic recovery. In
2011 for instance the Nigerian economy following International Monetary Fund
(IMF) forecast, Nigeria was expected to witness 5.9 percent GDP growth but
figures from the Federal Bureau of Statistics in Nigeria showed that by third
quarter of 2011 the GDP growth stood at 7.3 percent.
WATER
•The Jonathan administration
has remained committed to the UN resolution in July 2010 on the “Right to
Water”, which formally acknowledged the right of every human being to water.
•Pursuant to this, in
February this year it organized a Presidential Summit on water to seek more
effective ways of preserving national water and make same available to Nigerians.
•To check the menace of
flooding and prevent a repeat of the flood disaster experienced last year, the
Federal Ministry of Water Resources recently released the 2013 Annual Flood
Outlook for Nigeria
•The document evaluated the
flood scenario in 2012 and analyzed the most likely areas to experience flood
in 2013. It has also offered suggestions to all stakeholders and the general
public on how to reduce the anticipated flooding as a result of expected
increase in rainfall this year.
•The Jonathan administration
has revitalized the 12 River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) nationwide.
•The RBDAs have helped in
boosting food production through resuscitation of equipment, rehabilitation of
production units such as processing of rice milling, palm oil, fisheries, palm
oil, bottled water etc.
•The RBDAs have also helped
in redistribution and redeployment of idle equipment, improvement of water
management within basin catchment e.g. the Chad and Hadejia-Jamare basins,
where the Ministry of Water Resources repaired the Challawa Gates for release
of water downstream.
•Nine dams completed in 2012
and 125,000 jobs created in the process.
•Ten irrigation projects
deployed in 2012 for crop production. Four other irrigation projects completed
and ready for commissioning.
•Residents in125 Local
governments sensitized via sanitation programme for attitudinal change.
•52,384 jobs created in 2012
four completed irrigation projects costing several billions of naira.
PENSION REFORMS
•Before the Jonathan
administration came on board, the pension funds administration regime was one
the major channels through which public funds running into hundreds of billions
of Naira are misappropriated by corrupt officials.
•Problems associated with the
pension management system include embezzlement, falsification of records, Ghost
pensioners, obsolete administrative structure and denial of pensioners their
due entitlements. This was what necessitated the setting up of the presidential
pension Reform Task Team. The activities of this important task force resulted
in the following:
•Detection and deletion of
over 73,000 Ghost/Fake pensioners from the Head of Service/police pension
office.
•Stoppage of a monthly theft
of over N4 billion from the National treasury.
•Saving a monthly sum of over
N1billion from the police monthly pension releases.
•Discovery of over 50,000
unpaid pensioners and immediate payment of their entitlement.
•Discovery of over
N2.7billion fraud by the Nigeria Union of Pensioners.
•Seizure of about 200
properties including choice hotels and cash worth billions of Naira from
corrupt public officials.
•Arrest and on-going
prosecution of pension fraud suspects by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC).
•Introduction of a more
efficient tamper-proof pension funds management system.
OIL INDUSTRY REFORMS
•In line with global best
practices and the principal aim of the Nigerian Extractive industry and
Transparency Initiative (NEITI), President Jonathan recently forwarded the Petroleum
Industry Bill to the National Assembly for passage into law.
•By the time the Petroleum
Industry Bill is passed into law, Nigeria would have successfully broken the
jinx of being a Nation where global business rules and practices are flouted
with impunity. Estimated annual earnings of 680 billion dollars would be added
to our Gross Domestic product. Crude oil theft and other sharp practices are
also being combated with much vigor by various security and regulatory agencies
on the president’s instructions.
•Furthermore, the fuel
subsidy regime which had been a conduit pipe through which huge funds were
siphoned from the National treasury has been subjected to forensic scrutiny by
various agencies and committees set up by Mr. President in the last twelve
months.
•The Aig-Imoukhuede
Presidential committee on verification and reconciliation of subsidy claims and
payments led to the arrest and arraignment of a number of individuals and firms
by the EFCC.
•It is also on record that
the president, upon receipt of the House of Representatives subsidy probe panel
report, forwarded same to relevant security agencies with a firm instruction
that there must be no sacred cows in the prosecution of culpable individuals
and corporate entities.
•The on-going implementation
of this and other reports has resulted in huge savings of money hitherto stolen
by corrupt public officials.’
•These are initiatives which
had not been taken by any other previous government.
ELECTORAL REFORMS
•President Goodluck Jonathan
that this important process has been sanitized in a manner unprecedented in our
political history.
•The reform carried out in
this sector is responsible for the conduct of elections assessed by local and
international observers as credible, free and fair.
•He has given the Nations
electoral body a free hand to carry out its statutory duties without any form
of direct or indirect manipulation. It takes a man who is committed to
eradicating political corruption to do this in view of the apparent desperation
of some politicians to capture power at all cost.
PORTS REFORMS
•Opportunities for bribery,
documents forgery and other sharp-practices in the Nigerian ports have been
substantially removed through a number of measures introduced by both the
Ministries of Finance and that of Transport.
•A Presidential committee on
ports reform and monitoring has worked assiduously to reduce congestion in our
ports with the ultimate goal of a 48-hour goods clearing policy. The reforms in
this sector are helping:
• To improve efficiency and
transparency in ports operations and management.
•Reduce charges and promote
competition.
•Facilitate the development
of the transport sector.
•Eliminate ports congestion.
•Reduce government’s
financial burden.
LEGAL AND JUDICIAL REFORMS
•The Jonathan administration
has since its inception been concerned securing convictions of suspects accused
of economic crimes within a reasonable time frame.
• On the occasion of the
swearing in of Justice Miriam Aloma Mukhtar as Chief Judge of the Federation in
July 2012, President Jonathan admonished the new CJ to consider the creation of
special courts and designation of special judges to adjudicate on corruption
cases.
•In addition, the President
as the head of the Executive Arm of government has also initiated a reform of
the criminal justice system as a means of plugging loop holes often exploited
by counsels to delay trial of persons accused of corruption.
•The office of the Attorney
General and Minister of Justice has completed a new set of proposals which has
been sent to the National Assembly. This bill, when passed into law, will
remove incidence of frivolous injunctions, interlocutory motions, adjournments
and other abuse of court processes by counsel employed by suspects in corruption
cases.
•The CJN has keyed into the
crusade for a reform of the judicial system by President Jonathan by taking
steps to weed out judges who acts of omission and commission are subverting
delivery of justice.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
•The signing of the Freedom
of Information Act into law by President Jonathan in May 2011 represents a
water-shed in the anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria.
•This piece of legislation
which had been virtually stalled by successive administrations since 1999 was
signed into law by President Jonathan to usher Nigeria into the league of
countries where transparency in governance is entrenched and citizens are
granted access to unfettered information about government activities.
•It is noteworthy that the
present administration took the bull by the horns to lay this very important
foundation for the war against corruption in Nigeria in the early months of its
inception and 24 hours after the bill was presented to him by the National
Assembly.
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