President Jonathan says 2013 was great - we did very well

The Presidency, Sunday, reviewed its performance in the outgoing year and gave itself a pass mark, saying that it recorded unprecedented feat despite distractions from the opposition.

It boasted that during the year major policies were made and key projects executed for the good of Nigerians.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, gave the presidential score cared in a statement made available to Vanguard in Abuja.

Okupe noted that contrary to impressions being created by vocal leaders of the opposition, Nigeria under President Goodluck Jonathan has moved significantly forward in many sectors than it was in 2011.

He said that the transformation which had taken place in the economy, transportation, agriculture, power and other critical sectors were the routes which all developed Nations had taken before now but which unfortunately had not been taken by Nigeria before now.

According to Dr Okupe "It is an incontrovertible fact that Nigeria under Jonathan has reduced its food imports by about forty percent and increased its local production of rice, cassava, sorghum, cotton and cocoa in percentages ranging from 25 to 56 in the last two years.

"For the first time since independence, the Nigerian agricultural sector is attracting unprecedented Foreign Direct Investment. Over the past two years, the sector has attracted $ 4 billion in private sector executed letters of commitment to invest in agricultural value chains, from food crops, to export crops, fisheries and livestock.

"The number of private sector seed companies grew from 10 to 70 within one year. Over $ 7 billion of investments from Nigerian businesses have been made to develop new fertilizer manufacturing plants, which will make Nigeria the largest producer and exporter of fertilizers in Africa. It is also noteworthy that agricultural lending as a share of total bank lending has risen from two percent to six percent in two years"

"On the power sector reforms initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010, the senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs explained that the major component of the reform which is the privatization of the generation and distribution power infrastructure was successfully accomplished in 2013 thus putting Nigeria on a sure path of steady power supply in a no distant future.

Okupe explained that with the completion of this process and the 10 NIPP projects, Nigeria would for the first time in history move away from vertically integrated state-owned and very poorly managed electricity industry to a modern private sector led fully regulated market with the right incentives capable of attracting accelerated new investments to kick start the re-industrialization of Nigeria.

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