NEC Okays New Textile Dev. Board, $90B Agribusiness, Livestock Development Plan

** Observes one minute’s silence for victims of Benue, Plateau attacks

*** We’re architects of a sustainable future, not mere responders to crises, VP Shettima tells council members

By: Our Reporter

To reposition Nigeria’s economy and tackle insecurity at its roots, the National Economic Council (NEC) has approved the establishment of a Cotton, Textile and Garment Development Board, alongside new strategies for agribusiness expansion and livestock transformation projected to generate up to $90 billion in economic value by 2035.

Other initiatives approved by council included the establishment of the Green Imperative Project (GIP) national office in Abuja and regional offices across the six geopolitical zones, as well as addressing the crises fuelled by the current system of animal husbandry in the country.

At its 149th NEC meeting held on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, NEC also observed a minute of silence for victims of the recent killings in Benue and Plateau States, while expressing its condolences for the people and governments of the affected states.

NEC, chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima, with Governors of the 36 states of the federation, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Minister of Finance, and other co-opted government officials as members, approved the proposal for the establishment of the Cotton, Textile and Garment Development Board.

As the regulatory body for the cotton, textile and garment sector of Nigeria, the Board will have governors representing the six geo-political zones, with Ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, Budget and Economic Planning, and Industry, Trade and Investment as members.

The board, when set up, will be domiciled in the Presidency, private sector-driven, with representation of the relevant public sector stakeholders, and funded from the Textile Import Levy being collected by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

NEC also approved the establishment of the Green Imperative Project (GIP) national office in Abuja and regional offices across the six geopolitical zones, as well as the request for support for the formal launch of the National Agribusiness Policy Mechanism.

Addressing issues of empowerment and food security, Vice President Shettima implored members of the Council to be courageous in taking decisions, saying they must “resist the temptation of grand rhetoric and embrace the hard work of reform.

“The nation is watching. Our citizens are not waiting for another speech. They are waiting for results. This Council must remain a meeting point of ideas that move the nation forward. Let us rise above partisan interests and regional divisions and focus on what truly matters—building a nation that delivers for all,” he stated.

VP Shettima reminded members that they were not at the council meeting as a mere routine but by “the resolve to confront the pressing realities that define the lives” of the Nigerian people”, even as he urged them not to just respond to crises, but work as architects of a sustainable future for the nation.

He stated: “Governance, in truth, is not the theatre of promises. It is the solemn business of fulfilment. Today, as always, we are not here to admire the beauty of policy design but to ensure the substance of its execution.

“The task before us is monumental, but it is not unfamiliar. At our last meeting, we launched bold initiatives and reawakened our sense of duty to the nation. Today, we return with even greater clarity about what lies ahead. We must always bear in mind that we are not merely responders to crises. We are architects of a sustainable future.”

On the establishment of a Cotton, Textile and Garment Development Board, the Vice President said it aligns with the economic revival agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, recalling that the initiative “is a call to resuscitate a sector that once clothed the people and powered the nation’s economy.

Nigeria is a nation where cotton can thrive in 34 states. Yet our production level remains a fraction of our potential. We currently produce only 13,000 metric tons, while we continue to import textiles worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This is not just an economic imbalance. It is an invitation to act,” he added.

Cotton, Textile and Garment Development Board, according to him, will be funded by the textile import levy and will have a presence in all geopolitical zones in the country.

“Our goal is not just regulation. It is a revival. This is our opportunity to re-industrialise, to empower communities, and to restore pride in local production,” he explained.

On strengthening the nation’s food security, the Vice President said even though it is a vital follow-up to the Nutrition 774 Initiative, it is also basically about building an inclusive, efficient and sustainable national food economy.

“We are building a national food economy that is inclusive, efficient and sustainable,” he noted.

VP Shettima maintained that deliberations by NEC must inspire action, deepen unity and uplift the lives of the citizens, and to actualise this, he pushed for the consideration of a “field visit by the NEC Implementation Monitoring Committee.

“This is a critical step in bridging the gap between policy and performance. Our people do not evaluate us by the elegance of our policies, but by the evidence of their impact,” he added.

Other highlights of the meeting are as follows:

UPDATES ON ACCOUNT BALANCES

The Accountant-General of the Federation gave an update to Council on the under-listed accounts as follows:

1. EXCESS CRUDE ACCOUNT (ECA), Balance as at April 2025 – $473,754.57
2. STABILISATION ACCOUNT, Balance as at April 2025 – N63,535,835,786.60
3. NATURAL RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNT, Balance as at April 2025 – N72,858,962,913.29

PRESENTATION ON SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA BY HONOURABLE MINISTER OF EDUCATION TO EQUIP 5 MILLION YOUTH WITH INCOME-GENERATING, INDUSTRY-RELEVANT AND ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS BY 2030

The presentation by the Honourable Minister of Education informed the Council that the National Council on Skills had, at its last meetings, chaired by the Vice President, resolved to strengthen and streamline skills development efforts across the country, through the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) initiative.

Council was informed that the TVET system will comprehensively transform skilled education to deliver quality and consistency across all levels. Through a standardised framework that ensures all training programs are properly accredited and certified in a seamless and orderly manner, supported by modernised colleges, an industry-relevant curriculum, sustainable funding and a strong governance structure.

Council was informed that the coordinated and integrated initiative will integrate partnerships with all MDAs, sub-national governments and the private sector.

Council lauded the federal government’s strong commitment to TVET by integrating skills development into national education policies and budgetary allocations.

COUNCIL RESOLUTION:

Council approved key recommendations in the presentation and urged State governors to take advantage of emerging opportunities under the new initiative to train and mentor youths in digital education and skill acquisition to add value to their lives.

Considering the benefits of the programme on job creation and youth empowerment, States were advised to also fully participate in the programme irrespective of political affiliations.

PRESENTATION ON NIGERIA LIVESTOCK GROWTH ACCELERATION STRATEGY BY THE MINISTRY OF LIVESTOCK DEVELOPMENT

The purpose of the presentation is to present the strategy of the newly created Federal Ministry of Livestock Development (FMLD) to the National Economic Council. The strategy is inherited and built on the National Livestock Transformation Plan, NLTP (2018 – 2028), which was focused on modernising Nigeria’s livestock sector, with an emphasis on cattle ranching and peacebuilding.

The strategy is also built on the National Livestock Growth Acceleration Strategy (NL-GAS), refined and extended to transform the sector into an intentional jobs, wealth, exports, and tax / IGR engine.

The presentation projected that the strategy will build a $74B – $90B sector by 2035 in direct partnership between States, the private sector, and foreign investors, under a sound federal regulatory umbrella.

Investments in the programme will prioritise 5 key pillars between 2025-2026. These critical areas of focus include Animal Health and Zoonoses Control, Feed and Fodder Development, and Water Resources Management.

Others are on Statistics & Information Systems and Breed Improvement initiatives as essential components of comprehensive Livestock Value Chain Development across the country.

Council considered several prayers related to livestock development initiatives in Nigeria. The first set of requests included formally endorsing FMLD’s inheritance of NLTP, its strategic priorities and associated implementing assets; transferring to FMLD the prior committed N100 billion in resources approved by NEC to support industry modernization; creating counterpart State Ministries of Livestock Development as appropriate; and gaining access to the pool of technical support and expertise available at the Federal Ministry, particularly for animal health support and disease eradication.

Additionally, the Council reviewed proposals to work together in delivering public good investments critical to transforming Nigeria into a red meat exporter with access to key Middle East and Asian markets. This included partnering with FMLD to attract private investors to the States as well as strengthening existing ones to build an IGR source, national job growth, and export engine.

The final considerations focused on collaboration with the NL-GAS Office to domesticate the new strategy and key into the growing pool of investor engagement. There was also discussion about partnering with sub-nationals to identify key areas of investment priority and positioning on the value chain accordingly via State Investment Companies to generate IGR and jobs.

COUNCIL RESOLUTION:

Council deliberated and endorsed key recommendations of the presentation, especially the focus on addressing the crises fuelled by the current system of animal husbandry in the country.

Council also urged active participation of the sub-nationals and the private sector in operationalising the priorities of the Ministry’s presentation on modern livestock production.

NEC Okays New Textile Dev. Board, $90B Agribusiness, Livestock Development Plan

219 Nigerians Rescues from Forced Cybercrime in Ghana

By: Michael Mike

The Federal Government has lauded Ghanaian authorities for rescuing at least 219 young Nigerians who were trafficked to the West African country and forced into cybercrimes.

It also restated its commitment to providing the youth with technical education and skills to curb growing unemployment.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu made the commitment when she visited the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) in Accra, Ghana, where the victims of trafficking were being detained.

In a closed door meeting with the Executive Director of the agency, Mr. Bashiru Dapilah and two of his directors, the minister expressed gratitude to the operatives for doing their job professionally especially treating the victims with dignity.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who was in Ghana for the official launch of the 50th anniversary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers on the withdrawal of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, described as callous and inhuman, the exploitation of innocent young people.

She said that trafficking was modern slavery, obnoxious and man’s inhumanity to man.

She however urged Nigerian youth to shun people who promise irresistible job offers outside the shores of the country, decrying the most times these are just baits to lure them into slavery.

She stated that the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana had last Thursday, alerted her of the incident and how the victims were held under inhuman conditions by the perpetrators before the sting operation that burst the evil syndicate.

She said: “Prior to their rescue, these boys had been locked up in about 25 rooms within the estate where they were used to perpetrate cybercrimes. At the time of their arrest, many of them, being locked inside confined spaces with computers for weeks on end without being let outside, were even unable to get their eyes to adjust to the sun when they were led outside those dark rooms. Some had been serially abused with visible lacerations inflicted on them by their criminal ‘don’ while one had his legs broken for not tendering all the proceeds of his cybercrime.”

Addressing the victims at the premises of the agency, the minister said that they were lucky to have been rescued, disclosing that many had lost their lives in similar circumstances while others rot in jails in parts of the world.

She said: “Count yourselves lucky as next time, it may not be a benevolent country like Ghana. It may not be a circumstance within a location where we have excellent bilateral relations. There are countries that take cybercrimes very seriously and by the time they lock you up, they will throw away the key. We are still trying to this day to ensure that Ethiopia signs our exchange or transfer of sentenced persons MoU so that we can bring those nationals who are trapped in their prisons back to Nigeria. So we don’t lose even more of them.

“We are happy that this commission has excellent relations with NAPTIP and they have been kind enough. I was really humbled when the Executive Director said their interest is not for these young men to get back to Nigeria into the prison system; because that’s what usually happens. Under that situation, they are obliged to hand you over to law enforcement, correctional facilities in Nigeria and then you know what will happen. It’s another cycle of your relatives coming to prison to bring you food,” Odumegwu-Ojukwu said.

She however highlighted that the Nigerian government was committed to citizen-centred diplomacy as a cardinal thrust of the foreign policy of President Bola Tinubu-administration.

She said that the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration has laudable programmes particularly those that give skills to the youth so that they do not indulge in crimes of this nature.

She, therefore, urged the victims, to take advantage of this second chance that God has made possible for them by keying into some of the intervention programmes of the federal government.

She admonished: “Know that East, West, home is best. So, when you get home, give the government opportunity to equip you with skills.

“I am also using this opportunity to commend other Nigerians who are industrious, hardworking and law-abiding in Ghana.

“I can assure you that Ghana will have the support and cooperation of the Nigerian Government in the fight against organised crimes.

“It’s something that our own Economic and Financial Crimes Commission will want to be part of to ensure that we are not seen as headquarters of economic crimes.”

She described what happened as a success story, a model to how bilateral relations should be pursued in addressing economic and financial crimes.

Executive Director of the agency, Dapilah explained how his team acted on intelligence to achieve the feat.

He said: “We are not looking at this as a Nigerian crime because you have some backing of Ghanaian. The estate where they lived, we arrested the owner and he will be prosecuted.

“We require collaboration between our two countries. The crime is committed here in Ghana but we know that somebody in Nigeria was behind it. So, these persons have been rescued but the next thing is the collaboration to ensure that the perpetrators are apprehended.

“As you go home, take the message to our counterpart in Nigeria that we will be needing collaboration to to roundup the perpetrators,” he said.

The Ghana anti-graft boss extolled majority of Nigerians in the country who he said were law-abiding and contributing significantly to the development of Ghana and its economy.

“We have a large Nigerian population here that are law-abiding especially where they are selling spare parts. We have a lot of them running restaurants where we go to eat Nigerian delicacies,” Dapilah said.

He also thanked the Nigerian High Commission for working closely with the agency for long, detailednoting that the Chargé D’Affaires, Ambassador Dayo Adeoye collaborated with them.

Adeoye daid that over 3 million Nigerians reside in Ghana and many of them are doing well, helping the economic development of their host country.

He called for aggressive enlightenment to curb the spate of trafficking involving Nigerians.

About 231 young Nigerians are expected to arrive Lagos on Friday from Ghana and handed to government officials.

219 Nigerians Rescues from Forced Cybercrime in Ghana

VP SHETTIMA AND THE ILLOGICAL PERMUTATIONS FOR 2027

By: Inuwa Bwala

As happened in 2023, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was to name his running mate, vested interests are again up in arms, trying to hoodwink or armstwist him into doing their bids.
What people forget, however, is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a master schemer and knows exactly what to do at the appropriate time. Contrary to what many people think, he has his own game plan and can not be compelled to play to the gallery.
In the last few weeks, I have read a plethora of writeups trying to give President Bola Ahmed Tinubu prescriptions on how to chart a new political course if he hopes to achieve his second term bid in the 2027 general elections.
Many of the write ups contain permutations in the event of the emergence of a perceived strong opposition and that unless he drops his Vice President for another person, he will have a difficult task.
As a student of political history, and given our experiences, I dare say that if Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima could win in the face of all the obstacles placed in their ways from within and from without there does not appear any threat to this same ticket in 2027.
I must confess that I have not yet met a shrewed political strategist in Nigeria like the President who against all permutations settled for Kashim Shettima neither am I aware of any politician who could be as loyal dedicated and determined to his Boss as Shettima has demonstrated over the years.
The game is already on, and the biggest threat to Tinubu in 2027 is indeed any attempt to shift the goalpost in the mu
middle of the game.
As far as I know, the combination has given a very good account of itself, and with the rays of hope beyond the immediate horizon, Kashim Shettima remains President Bola Ahmed Tinubu best choice
I am aware that people have been trying to drive a wedge between them by framing false narratives that are neither here nor there. So as not to embolden those who are heating up the polity unnecessarily, the silence maintained on political permutations remains the best by both the president and the vice president.
Silence on certain issues has paid off for both of them before, and it will again pay off.
When people thought Bola Ahmed Tinubu was sick and weak and may even die before the end of his first tenure, he maintained a golden silence on his health status and rather magnified it as real thereby tricking all Nigerians into believing it was true.
Now that he has proven to be healthy and strong, the voices that predicted a doom for the presidency are silent.

VP SHETTIMA AND THE ILLOGICAL PERMUTATIONS FOR 2027