The Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, has identified policy somersaults as a clog in the wheel of Nigeria’s economic and agricultural development.
Sanusi spoke during a joint session of the United Nations World Food Programme, WFP, and the African Development Bank, AfDB, organised on the sidelines of the Nigeria Economic Summit in Abuja.
The session focused on ‘Investing in Innovative Food Systems Solutions in Challenging Contexts’.
“The biggest problem I have seen with our country is the lack of policy continuity. Every time you have an election, it is as if everybody starts on a clean slate
“A civil service that should preserve institutional memory has either by design or default failed to do so. So, every few years, we come back discussing the same issues,” he said.
The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, recalled that during his tenure as CBN governor, he initiated a study of six agricultural value chains to improve lending and promote investments in local production.
“We discovered 13 tomato varieties suitable for paste production, but outdated laws blocked their commercialisation. We had to fight for policy amendments. Yet, before the reforms could mature, the project was abandoned.
“There is not enough money in the government to fix every farmer’s challenge. What the government can do is create confidence for private investment to thrive,” he added.