The National Economic Council (NEC) has approved the sum of N83.2 billion for the Anticipatory Action Task Force (AATF) interventions aimed at mitigating the impact of anticipated flooding and other climate-related emergencies across the country.
This is just as Chairman of the Council, Vice President Kashim Shettima @officialSKSM , called on states to work with the Federal Government in resolving the logistical and compliance barriers that prevent farm produce from reaching international markets.
The approval of the N83.2bn intervention funds on Thursday at the 158th meeting of NEC followed a presentation to Council by the Minister of State, Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite , on the need to proactively address issues associated with flooding across Nigeria, particularly during the raining season.
In addition, the Council noted the importance of the AATF in addressing disasters and emergencies across the country, underscoring the fact that NEC cannot continue to be seen as always taking reactionary measures with regards to emergency and disaster management.
Speaking at the meeting, the Vice President said the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led administration’s reform agenda must now produce visible results across the federation.
Senator Shettima noted that the Council’s work must be judged by what changes in the lives of ordinary Nigerians, especially farmers, manufacturers, vulnerable citizens, unemployed young people and children who will inherit the country.
He stated: “When this Council last met, I called our economy a workshop. A place of measurement and correction. A place where plans are turned into systems, and systems into institutions, before any of it becomes prosperity.
“A workshop is judged by one thing. Not by the plans pinned to its walls, but by what comes off the bench. We return to that bench today. Not to admire the image, but to ask the question that honours it. Is the work taking shape?”
VP Shettima said Nigeria remains a federation moving from stabilisation to production, from aspiration to implementation, and from isolated interventions to coordinated national growth.
According to him, the agenda before the Council was not a new conversation, but a continuation of the national assignment with greater pressure for action and results.
“The assignment has not changed. We remain a federation moving from stabilisation to production, from aspiration to implementation, from isolated interventions to coordinated national growth. What has changed, I hope, is our proximity to delivery.
“A federation does not earn its prosperity by leaving its most vulnerable behind and hoping they catch up. The dignity of the citizen with the least is the floor beneath which we have resolved that no Nigerian shall fall.”
VP Shettima pointed out that the social protection agenda before the Council was an opportunity to convert national conscience into a durable system that protects citizens and strengthens human capital.
On exports and production, VP Shettima said Nigeria must stop relying on the export of raw materials while importing finished prosperity from other countries.
He maintained that the country’s economic transformation depends on a complete value chain linking farms to factories, factories to standards, standards to ports, and ports to markets.
“We cannot continue to export raw materials and import finished prosperity,” he said.
VP Shettima also assured that the Council would confront bottlenecks that weaken Nigeria’s agricultural exports, especially the challenges affecting movement of goods through the ports and the standards required by international markets.
He averred that improving port processes and meeting export compliance requirements are central to rewarding farmers, strengthening manufacturers and expanding Nigeria’s participation in global trade.
“A nation that cannot move its goods has imprisoned its own farmers. Meeting international standards is not submission to foreign demand. It is the price of the markets that will reward our labour,” the Vice President added.
