[Nigeria] Usman gives antidote to eradicate poverty

from Vanguard

ABUJA — Minister for Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman has pledged fresh heavy investments in infrastructure and human resource to achieve poverty eradication and sustainable development in the nation.

Mrs. Usman in a paper presented at the presidential retreat on Science and Technology in Abuja at the weekend, said that the Federal Government, would pay more attention on multi-sectoral investment, in the remaining life of the present administration and that her economic team was working on a broader economic policy framework that would bring succour to the populace.

A statement issued, by the Chief Press Secretary to the Minister, Mr. Abdulganiyu Aminu, in Abuja, yesterday, quoted Mrs. Usman as saying “Science and Technology have a crucial role to play in facilitating the development of all sectors as demonstrated by the experience of Brazil, India and China, and significant growth can be achieved in agriculture by improving the use of Science and Technology by farmers.”

The Minister urged Nigerian workers in both the manufacturing and service sectors to develop the Scientific and Technological skills necessary to compete internationally given the changes presented by globalisation.

“Without this skill, our workers cannot compete effectively in the highly skilled technologically intensive industries”, the minister maintained.
She said the success of the economic reforms, had enabled the Federal Government to vote considerable allocations to the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, since 2001 and that total resource allocation for the ministry has been increased from N13.5 billion in 2001 to the current N18billion.

Mrs. Usman, added that fiscal measures, such as the adherence to the oil-price based fiscal rule and the introduction of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) have also helped government to provide funding to aid the development of science and technology. She challenged the private sector to also assist in funding science and technology.

She expressed satisfaction that government support for private sector-led investment in science and technology had begun to yield fruits, citing the development of the drug Nicosan Xychem, for sickle-cell anaemia, as a classic case of public-private sector partnership and therefore called for closer cooperation between the two sectors.