He also said that the previous administration was spending about N20 billion on food importations annually, which reduced the nation’s foreign reserve drastically from about $40 billion to about $25 billion.
As a result, he said, the present administration was bent on diversification of the economy from crude oil to agriculture and solid minerals production.
Osinbajo said the focus on agriculture was to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice, poultry and palm oil production as well as develop the entire agriculture value chain to create wealth and jobs for the teeming youth.
The vice president further said that the administration‘s targets 2018 for complete reliance on refined petroleum products, adding that the petrochemical industry, railway infrastructure and provision of other infrastructure were atop the priority of the federal government.
He told the VGC community that the major areas of focus of the Buhari administration were security, governance, anti-corruption and economic rejuvenation.
According to him, Boko Haram insurgency had been degraded as a “military might’’ although pockets of suicide bombings still take place.
“This is a challenge we must tackle going forward but the other challenge is the over 2 million people displaced by insurgency who need resettlement,’’ he added.
He said the idea was to re-settle the people back to their farming occupation first, but that would be after the entire North East land had been de-mined.
He said government was mindful also of the agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), pipeline vandalism in the South-South and the Fulani- farmers clash in some communities, all which pose security threats.
Osinbajo restated that in governance, corruption was a critical issue because “the whole system, both public and private, is replete with corruption which has become the rule rather than the exception.
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