The Federal Government   and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have decried the N630billion  annual food import bill, as the apex bank is set to deploy N77.5billion to the agriculture sector under its Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) programme.

President Goodluck Jonathan, while declaring open a two-day conference on NIRSAL on Tuesday, in Abuja, decried the high yearly food import bill, declaring that it was no linger acceptable to the government.

According to the president, who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, Nigeria is a net importer of food items such as rice, sugar, fish, etc. But with the coming of NIRSAL, President Jonathan said, there would be renewed hope for the agriculture sector and  a new lease of life for all Nigerians in terms of food sustainability and employment generation.

He said the Federal Government’s Vision 20 20:20 was not an exaggeration as it was determined to improve the socio-economic lives of  Nigerians, through improved power generation, effective transportation and access to finance.

To demonstrate government’s commitment towards improving the lives of Nigerians through the transport sector, the president said his government had reactivated the railways from Lagos to Kano and Port Harcourt to Maiduguri , while modern ones would be built from Kaduna to Abuja and Lagos to Ibadan.

In addition to the massive road construction going on in the country, the president said tremendous efforts had been made in power generation and transmission.

Deploring the high food import bill on a yearly basis, the CBN governor lamented that Nigeria had lost its prime position in the field of agriculture, adding that unlike in the past when the country accounted for 60 per cent, 30 per cent and 15 per cent of global palm oil, groundnut and cocoa, Nigeria’s agriculture import bill stood at N630billion annually.

He said large food products import include wheat (N165billion), fish (105billion), rice (N75billion) and sugar (N60billion)

He said gross under funding of the agriculture sector had been a major challenge as exemplified in the fact that less than four per cent of the federal budget had been allocated to the sector since 2006.

This, according to the CBN governor, is contrary to the 2003 African Union Maputo Declaration that directed member countries to increase investment in the agriculture sector to, at least 10 per cent of the national budget.

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