President Muhammadu Buhari today said that 10,000 megawatts of electricity must be provided in the next three years remaining for his administration, of which 3,000 megawatts must be achieved by the end of 2016.

He gave the order while opening a two-day National Economic Council (NEC) retreat in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital territory.

In his key note address, Buhari took participants through random policy projections in four selected sectors; agriculture, power, manufacturing and housing.

The President told his audience which includes the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, state governors, ministers and CBN officials that decisions reached at the retreat will not be final but only contributions for economic development and subject to review as they progress.

He highlighted the need for Nigeria’s agricultural sector to be able to ensure local food production for food sufficiency, as more funding and appropriate resources must be provided to achieve this.

Mechanised farming must also be promoted in Nigeria with the provision of feeder roads to transport crops to production plants and mills, while states increase support to community farmers and operators.

To ensure his administration meets the set targets and put a stop to power outage, he said that the process of privatisation must be concluded in order for Nigerians to reap its benefits.

He went on to say that more security should be provided for pipelines and encouragement and incentives for power companies to operate.

The National Economic Council Retreat provides a forum for indepth discussions by members of the policy actions that the states and the Federal Government could consider in order to stimulate the economy.

Forum looks into avenues available to cut costs and enhance public revenues among other measures.

•Adapted from a Channels TV report. State House Photo shows President Buhari delivering his address today at the National Economic Summit in Abuja.

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