By Martins Oloja
In the first part of this piece, I challenged the political leaders in the country to be technically ready too with a blueprint for solution to some of the challenges plaguing the country in a strategic manner a former Governor, Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, (PhD) has done with the Livestock Sector. The Sector, which used to be a rejected stone in the old Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has become a cornerstone: It is now a purpose-driven Ministry.
I hinted then at the quality of experts that have worked hard to ensure that the idea whose time has come isn’t just a Ministry like the numerous others where the “the gate-keepers”, (civil servants) most times kill dreams of leaders.
I promised to expose some of the experts that put together the Livestock Reform agenda that has become a game changer in the hand of President Tinubu who is seeking to stimulate the Livestock Sector to create jobs, wealth and tackle insecurity.
Let me quickly reiterate my appeal to more technocrats, more critical thinkers around the President and our leaders at all levels who can bring experts together to tackle challenges in the critical sectors such as Energy, Education, Health, Digital Technology and the Economy.
But before the focus on the experts and scholars, let’s peep into the work they have done that has attracted the attention of the President who has retained the Panel to continue to work with him and the Ministry to reform the Livestock sector and reposition it as a significant development sector.
The Panel’s report to the President has established that the N33 trillion worth of Nigeria’s livestock sector is at the moment contributing less than 3% to the annual GDP and was hitherto an integral part of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, which made it difficult for the sector to realise its full potential as an economic prosperity driver over the years.
Upon inauguration, the Presidential Committee was handed 16 Terms of Reference (TORS) to deliver the needed reforms in the sector aimed at fast tracking peace building among the actors while delivering innovative reforms to ensure global competiveness of the sector.
The Committee’s work submitted to the President interrogated the issues of concerns for the development and delivery of livestock industry with global competiveness, which is anchored on critical areas of interest to the livestock sector derived from the TORs. The priority reform action based on the directive of the President is the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development as the main bureaucratic implementing entity of the federal government programmes and projects in the sector.
In this regard, in the Inception Report, the Committee has recommended the mandate, functions, organogram, department, agencies, institutes, divisions and units for the new Ministry. Besides, the recommended management structure of the Ministry was complemented by a list of action plans, procedural and the operating framework among other details.
What is more, the Committee’s work identified prospective programmes and projects that are not only sustainable but viable with impacts on socio-economic development prospects and resource mobilisation, funding including development of business financing and investment models for private sector investment. This strategy is expected to accelerate the promotion of ranching and other economically viable intensification models to mitigate farmers and herders clashes among other socio-economic albatrosses of traditional extensive livestock production systems.
The Committee also examined governance/partnership mechanisms for key stakeholders at international, national and sub-national levels. The recommendations provided insights into the design of settlement schemes and transformation of livestock value chains where improved production is envisaged to engender overall prosperity for all. All these are outcomes of extensive review of existing policy documents, livestock reform reports and blueprint with attendant implications for overall contribution to GDP, feed, food and nutrition security, revenue generation, job creation, peace and security.
The Committee employed innovative-led, analytical and methodical approaches leveraging on the rich knowledge base of the members to distil the 16 TORs to 22 specific objectives, which guided the development of the new sectorial reform activities (120) with clear key performance indicators (3,146) and means of verification as detailed in the inception report to the President. The data-driven approach to the evaluation of the existing documents , programmes and projects in the sector has provided some preliminary information that required fieldwork validation to make informed decisions on the final recommendations of the Committee in terms of the technical and financial requirements.
‘Indicative cost estimate’
The Committee mined data to work on the indicative cost estimate to deliver on the carefully selected reforms of the livestock sector and that grossed at about N10 trillion over the next 10 years based on the preliminary desk research work and experiential consultations.
This estimate includes the cost of establishing the Ministry of Livestock Development, which is to be borne in cash and kind by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The other major components of the cost include provision for feed, water and nutrition security for value chain development – 30%, infrastructure development and capacity building -30%, Peacebuilding, national sector security & economic prosperity – 12%, Genetic resources management and breed productivity enhancement – 10%, Market development, export and competiveness – 10%, and others 8%.
The committee’s recommendation includes a cost-sharing formula that will ensure private sector investment of 50% to finance selected cost items while 40% shall be provided by the 3 tiers of government at the ration of federal 50%, state 35%, and local government 15 %respectively. Accordingly, the remaining 10% contribution is expected to be sourced from international development partners and donor agencies’ contributions including foreign direct investment (FDI).
There are indications already that in respect of local direct investment, the President’s new livestock reform action and proactivity so far has sent a positive signal to the organised private sector. The well attended Stakeholders’ consultative workshop at the State House Conference hall with numerous exhibitors of livestock products the other day confirmed this claim. The development has also resulted in the restructuring of the capital-market led N5 trillion investment named National Livestock Security Fund by the Lagos Commodities and Future Exchange to deliver on Livestock resettlement and development programme.
The Committee has been engaging and mapping all the relevant stakeholders in the nation’s livestock sector to secure their buy-in and enlist their various commitments to deliver a reformed, peaceful and competitive sector. The engagements including physical inspections of facilities and farms, which have actually begun have necessitated the profiling and reviewing of the on-going programmes and projects across the sector at the national, sub-national levels, conducting field works and needs assessment surveys, validating the status, type and number of sectoral infrastructural claims including production models, evaluate the peace-building strategies at community level, assess the available capacities and capabilities of human capital, facilitate the attraction of local and foreign direct investments for positioning the nation’s livestock sector on both continental and global map in terms of competitiveness.
The President seems to be very enthusiastic about the Livestock sector that is expected to enhance the nutritional and health outcomes of citizens, and support the food and nutritional security programmes of the government through robust livestock value chain development. The development of the sector is also expected to be consequential to the economy and welfare of the people. The Panel has mapped out how the sector will at this time create more jobs, generate additional wealth for the stakeholders.
Specifically, the reform of the sector can contribute about 10-12% to the National GDP over the next 10 years provided the reforms are institutionalised and sustained.
Going by the report and action plans of the Panel to the President, the sector shall be positioned to contribute positively to the carbon net zero commitment of Nigeria by 2050 through the deployment of research, development and innovation outcomes/outputs to ensure a climate-smart livestock sector.
The Stakeholders Consultative Workshop on Livestock Reforms in Nigeria, which took place from October 24-25 at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja was declared open by the President. The Workshop well attended by stakeholders was even dramatic by the way the Livestock Development Minister emerged from among the Stakeholders. The Minister, Idi Maiha was actually invited and had arrived in Abuja from his Dairy Farm in Kaduna. He was prepared for accreditation in Abuja when his name was announced as a ministerial nominee who hails from Adamawa state. He was spotted at the Eagle Square Accreditation centre only by other stakeholders who had met the successful dairy farmer in Kaduna state. He participated actively as a minister-designate.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Chairman of the Panel who declared the Stakeholders Consultative Workshop open, showed his seriousness further when he reiterated his support in revamping and repositioning the sector to create employment and attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
The President restated his earlier conviction that the livestock sector is critical and promised to give all it needs to bring value to Nigeria. He assured the stakeholders that they would not regret the collaboration and investment in the sector, maintaining that it is time that we got it right. He decried a situation where a country like Nigeria with over 200 million people cannot serve her children one pint of milk in a classroom per day. He also lamented that Nigeria didn’t see the investment and economic opportunities inherent in the livestock sector, urging the citizens to work together to restart the sector now that we have seen the livestock economic vibrancy.
President Tinubu emphasised the shared mission of the livestock reform as aiming to transform the livestock sector from its current subsistence model into a thriving, commercialised industry; an industry that significantly contributes to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides decent jobs and sustainable livelihoods for our growing population. The President further listed the potential of the livestock sector, which he described as huge to include 563 million chickens, 58 million cattle, 124 million goats, 60 million sheep, and 16 million pigs; thus, with such a huge livestock population,
According to him, Nigeria is the leading livestock producer in West Africa. He described as unacceptable the annual production of animal-source foods, like milk at 0.7 billion litres, meat at 1.48 million tons, and eggs at 0.69 million metric tonnes, which falls short of our needs. More worrisome to the Nigeria’s leader is the average milk yield by cow breeds managed by our pastoralists, estimated to be between 0.5 and 1.5 litres per day, compared to an African average of 6.6 litres per day. According to him, Nigeria can do much better as a country!
President Tinubu who was visibly elated by the presence of the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, the Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, thanked him for supporting the reform of animal farming in the country. He also commended the Presidential Livestock Reform Implementation Committee members, the Co-Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and the Secretary, Prof. Muhammed Yahaya Kuta, for their commitment to repositioning the livestock sector. The President said in the main that the committee, the new ministry, and himself would continue to work to ensure the attraction of foreign direct investors and the implementation of the livestock reforms.
We should continue next week with the profile of the Panel members, which should be used as a model to strengthen state bureaucracies to deliver services to the people.
