The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has started to document all agricultural assets in Nigeria. To ensure a successful documentation exercise, all directors of agriculture throughout the country, have been directed to commence the exercise immediately.
Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Sabo Nanono, issued the directive last week at a meeting on evaluation of the previous year’s projects where he bemoaned that some of the country’s agricultural assets, including lands and buildings, were unaccounted for.
According to the minister, ‘’we have enormous unutilized assets They are so many that we do not even know where they are. We have land; we have buildings everywhere in this country. All zonal coordinators, please document our assets across the country. It is very important to know where they are and we want to know the status of these assets. Leaving them like that is a misnomer.’’
While noting that effective monitoring of government’s projects was a major challenge bedeviling the country, and assuring that the ministry will ensure that it was surmounted, Nanono further called on stakeholders present at the meeting, to draft a strategy for the monitoring and evaluation of the ministry’s projects.
Adding, he said the Federal Government was working towards taking care of the important areas of the sector, such as mechanization, extension service and livestock as enumerated by President Muhammadu Buhari in his New Year’s address to the nation.
On his part, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Abdulkadir Mu’azu, called on all stakeholders, zonal and state coordinators to put in collaborative efforts towards the implementation of projects.
