The Real Sector Measures consist of a mix of project and policy approaches, which focus on the creation of jobs across the fields of agriculture, food security, housing construction, renewable energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and the digital economy. The aim is to safeguard and support existing micro, small and medium scale businesses while ramping up local productive capacity by maximising emerging opportunities for innovation in technology, agro-allied value-chains, garment production, information and communication technology, entertainment and tourism, among other sectors. The approaches chosen will help to reduce costs in a manner consistent with private sector development. Click to see full plan

The Real Sector Measures include:

This project which will take place over a period of 12 months and is intended to expand existing production in the agricultural sector and stimulate the establishment of new farms in partnership with State Governments, the private sector and individual citizens. The intention is for the project to create 5 million jobs by focusing on increasing land under cultivation with State Governments contributing between 20,000 to 100,000 hectares from a combination of aggregated smallholder farms and utilisation of abandoned states farm settlements and agricultural projects.

The project will span the entire agricultural value chain, from ‘farm to table’ as it were. It will support small holder farmers directly or through outgrower schemes with services and inputs including land-clearing, ploughing, provision of seeds, saplings, fertilisers, pesticides as well as extension services, storage to mitigate post-harvest losses and equipment. Farmers will also be linked to low-interest input financing.

The increased production will be purchased by private sector anchor purchasers (e.g. large conglomerates), agro-processors, commodity exchanges and procurement for government strategic reserves. In addition, any unsold produce will be purchased at a reserve price by relevant agencies on behalf of the Federal Government. Also, to facilitate access to farms, there will be extensive construction of rural roads, using locally sourced materials like granites and rocks.

The Mass Housing Strategy envisages the creation of 1.8 million jobs starting with the construction of 300,000 homes in the next 12 months. The strategy envisages a two-track approach. The first track is aimed at easing bottlenecks in the delivery of social housing while the second track will deliver affordable homes through direct government interventions in house construction. In Track 2, between them, the Federal Housing Authority, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and the Public Building and Housing Development Programme will support the creation of construction and associated jobs over the next 12 months.

The Solar Power Strategy will support 250,000 jobs and impact up to 25 million beneficiaries through the installation of 5 million Solar Home systems and mini-grids. Provision of reliable electricity to health clinics will also be included as a priority. The project will swiftly increase the stock of affordable energy by providing solar power to rural communities that have little or no access to the national grid. Private sector installers of solar systems will be supported to access low-cost financing from development finance institutions and the CBN in order to install solar systems at an affordable price. The project will also draw on the experience of the ‘Energising Economies’ project through which customers with low energy demand were provided with electricity on a monthly ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis by private sector operators.

The project will also promote the local production of solar components and appliances, taking advantage of the work that has already been done in this regard by the NASENI and others.

This project brings together some of the key elements already existing in this Plan including road construction and maintenance, digital economy and education. It also contains additional elements such as the creation of a national public works programme to create 774,000 jobs (in all 774 local governments) and empowerment schemes designed to boost the capacity of women in artisanal employment and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The Jobs For Youth Project will support the creation of jobs through:

• Training in digital skills in partnership with private sector providers like Google, Microsoft, IBM and Cisco
• Direct labour in a National Public Infrastructure Maintenance project
• Provision of start-up capital and entrepreneurship skills for young Nigerians people and women

The Strategy for Jobs in Technology will take advantage of opportunities in the digital economy to create 1 million jobs in outsourcing. It is intended to create jobs by training young Nigerians to take advantage of existing initiatives in the digital economy, including in education, entertainment, e-commerce, financial services and software development. Specifically, it intends to leverage the high job creation potential of the technology sector by using policy to deepen the provision of business support services, including business process outsourcing in the economy. For these purposes, this strategy incorporates the expansion of broadband connectivity to business services parks and locations.

Additional workspaces for private sector participants will be identified in partnership with State Governments to form technology parks and outsourcing centres. Service standards will be set for the private sector through regulatory agencies, e.g. NCC, FCCPC, CBN and for the government through the office of the SGF and the Head of Service. This will stimulate activity in the contact (call) centre and document digitisation sectors. By enhancing their customer service structure in compliance with minimum standards established by regulation, customer facing government agencies will be leading off-takers of these services in addition to major private sector entities like banks, telecommunications companies, satellite television services, airlines and e-commerce operators.

The National Gas Expansion Programme will accelerate the transition of Nigeria to a post-oil era, promote the domestic use of cleaner fuels, and prepare the CNG market for export opportunities.

The downstream sector will be engaged to develop modular Compressed Natural Gas refilling plants for the distribution of gas.

The National LPG Expansion Implementation Plan will oversee and drive all the disparate efforts undertaken by industry stakeholders to promote LPG consumption in Nigeria. Working with private sector developers, the project will organise the sector to support conversion from the use of traditional fuels like kerosene, wood etc. to the use of cleaner LPG fuel. The project will engage with private sector to promote the distribution and domestic manufacture of cylinders and other accessories to encourage expand the adoption and use of LPG.

Supporting Small Businesses: Guaranteed Offtake Scheme for MSMEs; SME Survival Fund; SME Intervention Funds; MSME Regulatory Support
There are several tracks through which Government will be supporting micro, small and medium enterprises to enable them respond to the economic challenges of COVID-19.

The purpose of the Guaranteed Off-take Scheme for MSMEs is to safeguard 300,000 existing jobs in 100,000 MSMEs (impacting 1,000,000 individuals) and sustain local production. The scheme will function by government making arrangements to purchase specific priority products made by MSMEs. To ensure value for money the process for such supplies will be a bidding process. The scheme will ensure that small businesses do not fail and thus ensure that the jobs in the MSME sector are not lost to the global and national slowdown in economic activity.

Payroll support to designated sectors: The scheme is a conditional grant to support vulnerable SMEs in designated vulnerable sectors in meeting their payroll obligations and safeguard jobs from the shock of COVID-19. The scheme will seek to support 50,000 SMEs employing a minimum of 10 employees and a maximum of 50 employees each. Designated vulnerable sectors include: hotels, creative industries, road transport, tourism, private educational institutions, etc.

Interest-free credit to artisans: In addition, a further scheme to support daily-paid and self-employed workers and artisans through the provision of interest-free credit to be disbursed through micro-finance and fin-tech credit providers.

Support to the Road Transport Sector: To cushion the effects of social distancing, further support will be provided to the road transport sector in the form of direct grants to transport workers and businesses to support this sector which enables significant proportion of commercial activity.

This track is an initiative to be led by the Bank of Industry (BOI) to provide support to key sectors impacted by the pandemic such as: Healthcare; Agro Processing; Creative Industry; Oil & Gas; female- owned businesses. Preliminary engagements have been undertaken with the private sector to identify interventions required. These include:

• Credit facilities that support their working capital and expansion of existing production facilities
• Credit remediation support e.g. tenor extension, loan restructuring, moratoriums etc.
• Support for working capital facilities and term loans to finance expansion requests. Given its structure, BOI as fund manager is able to provide tailored lending solutions across the value chains of these affected sectors i.e. to micro, small and medium enterprises as well as large corporates.

This track is a practical and immediate response to micro and small businesses to support resilience and ensure continued local production and cushion the effects of the pandemic. The measures introduced will reduce product registration and renewal tariffs with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

Road construction and rehabilitation is essential to boost economic activity by easing the transportation of goods and persons. Using a labour-intensive approach, this project will cover the construction and maintenance of federal highways, roads, and bridges as well as road interventions within federal tertiary institutions all across the country. In addition, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) will undertake interventions to maintain strategic roads nationwide; provide, maintain and manage connecting corridors with Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones across the country; install and maintain street lighting to enhance highway security; as well as ensure the structural integrity of bridges and hydraulic structures.

Other key FERMA interventions are the Stakeholders Assisted Right of Way Maintenance Intervention Programme (SHAROWMIP); strategic economic and petroleum products route maintenance and maintenance of roads in tertiary and research institutions. This SHAROW-MIP programme is aimed at creating jobs by involving communities in vegetation management and silt control in order to enhance visibility, safety and security along critical federal highways. It will now be complemented by a post COVID-19 intervention to reduce bottlenecks that severely restrict the flow of food, fuel and medical supplies and thus enhance the speed of delivery of these vital items.

The current pandemic has accentuated the need for a robust healthcare system. National efforts in this regard are hinged on four key priorities, namely: boosting the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring access of every Nigerian to qualitative health services based on the prioritisation of primary health care, building preparedness for the threat posed by infectious diseases and boosting local research and development efforts aimed at the production of medical and pharmaceutical resources.

Immediate efforts are targeted at ramping up local production of materials such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), hand sanitisers, face masks and other resources for infection control. With a functional financial resource pooling mechanism in place to cover the healthcare of citizens, the private sector support will be brought to bear on the effort to transform public secondary and tertiary health institutions into self-administering and self-sustaining enterprises with the capacity to manufacture basic commodities and consumables like intravenous fluids, laundry soap, surgical gloves, bed sheets and pillowcases, nurses and doctors uniforms, etc.

While steps are being taken to expand the National Health Insurance Scheme to cover all citizens, the protection of health workers on the front lines of addressing COVID-19 and other infectious diseases shall be a priority. To this end, the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) shall provide insurance coverage for health workers across all tiers of government as well as in the private sector.

As part of the public health response and to strengthen resilience against the spread of infectious disease, there will be a concerted effort to increase water supply to public utilities and public places, including markets, IDP camps, Isolation and Testing centres. Beyond the emergency phase, there will be a scale up of the following already launched national initiatives:

• Partnership for expanded Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) for rapid improvement of WASH activities in rural areas
• National WASH Action Plan to strengthen WASH governance institutions and service provision
• Clean Nigeria Campaign against Open Defecation

In view of current challenges, the existing Social Investment Programmes will be expanded to offer greater and wider protection to the most vulnerable persons and communities:

Cash Transfers will be expanded to cover an additional 1 million households.

The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme will be expanded to all States of the Federation. Participating persons will be paid through their account numbers, telephone lines or in cash.

N-Power: The N-Power Programme will continue to provide job opportunities to Nigerian youths aged 18 – 35 on a year to year basis following which the beneficiaries will be exited into employment or entrepreneurship opportunities. A monthly stipend of N30, 000 will be paid to each beneficiary during the period.

Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP): To stimulate economic activity, the programme will continue providing loans to vulnerable micro, small and medium enterprises, starting from N10, 000. As part of the Covid-19 response, the moratorium will be extended for at least 3 months.

The programmes will deepen financial inclusion by bringing a proportion of the 36.8% of the adult population said to be financially excluded into the financial system. To achieve this, mobile money and agent networks will be leveraged.

The Aviation industry has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as over 90% of its activities and operations have been adversely affected, resulting in losses that are valued at N21bn on a monthly basis. Emphasis is therefore placed on ensuring the recovery of the sector, and providing financial support where necessary to ensure that the sector not just survives, but also sustains air connectivity to keep passenger traffic as well as supply lines for essential and cargo flights open. It is also proposed to fast track the establishment of a private sector driven national carrier to generate revenue and contribute to GDP, while creating activity in the wider economy for suppliers, importers, exporters and manufacturers.

The immediate focus in the Education sector is to address the disruptions caused by the pandemic and ensuing social distancing measures at all levels of education. Practical steps will be taken to minimise disruption to learning, utilising technology as appropriate. Specifically, virtual learning will be implemented (either online or through broadcast), virtual convocation ceremonies or issuance of certificates (with postponed ceremonies) should be implemented to continue educational progression.

In similar context, consideration will be given to suspending the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Orientation Camp Exercises for at least 24 months while allowing deployment to places of primary assignment. This will ensure that there is no backlog in the National Service placement pipeline. Going forward, steps will also be taken to address three key issues in the educational sector- the incidence of Out of School Children, the national shortage of basic education teachers and the urgent need to develop proficiency in STEM/TVET and digital literacy on a national level.

The project will be delivered over 36 months to accommodate the longer lead times in the education sector while addressing the incidence of Out-Of-School Children (OOSC). It is expected that with the structures that are established by this project, a major post-project benefit will be the eradication of the incidence of OOSC within five years.

The project will generate accurate and verifiable education data necessary for planning and decision-making and will involve extensive stakeholder engagement at State and local government levels as well as private sector engagement to understand needs as well as sensitise local populations on skills development and entrepreneurship. The project will create employment opportunities for qualified graduates and will develop the required proficiency of the teaching professionals in those critical subjects that underpin productivity, efficiency and innovation in a modern economy.

This project will address the establishment of a viable Science and Innovation ecosystem for the country especially by integrating the use of science and technology in the agricultural, housing and roads and solar power projects in this Plan.

Key aspects of the project are as follows:

• Monitoring and Review of the National Policy on Science, Technology and Innovation to attain nationally-defined objectives
• Acquisition and application of Science, Technology and Innovation to increase agricultural and livestock productivity
• Increasing energy reliance through sustainable Research and Development (R & D) in renewable and alternative energy sources
• Establishment of programmes for utilisation and commercialisation of research outputs from Federal Institutes by Small Business.
• Establishment of Science and Technology Parks across the Country

The COVID-19 outbreak has impacted the Ministry of Interior in several ways including border closure and travel restrictions, restrictions of business activities, cessation of issuance of passports and visas, inability of some companies to promptly renew their expatriate quota positions, evacuation of foreigners and congestion in correctional centres.

Given the more focused COVID-19 related tasks that now have to be performed across its many agencies, the Ministry and its agencies are seeking for ways to ease the operations of businesses that they engage with and ensure the safety of inmates in correctional facilities through activities such as the completion of 3000 Maximum Capacity Custodial Centres and the introduction of revenue-generating and cost-saving technologies. All these will be implemented as the Ministry enhances the capacity of its agencies to assist in the maintenance of peace and order across the nation.

This project aims to develop artisanal and small-scale mining for economic growth and development in Nigeria. The promotion and fostering of cluster development is expected to rapidly spur job creation. This will also agglomerate ASM producers, customers and competitors based on geographical proximity or linked by complementary expertise which will promote efficiency and increase specialisation and production.

It is expected that the development of clusters will create sustainable competitive advantages via the development of downstream mining industries, the generation of new start-up companies, increase in the level of competitive inputs and in the level of employment in all business activities related to the mining cluster, increase in the rate and exportation of value-added products and services as well as attract foreign investments.

The target area for the implementation of the project is the known ASM high density States in Nigeria, including Osun (gold mining), Zamfara (gold mining), Kaduna, Niger (gold mining), Bauchi (kaolin & coltan), Nasarawa, Gombe (gypsum) and Plateau (tin) states. The aim is to set-up a cluster in each geopolitical zone.

The ongoing national Digital Switch Over Programme (DSO) will be accelerated to support the process of the Analogue Switch Off (ASO) freeing up the spectrum for resale and deliver the benefits of Digital Television. The DSO will underpin the development of a sound digital economy in Nigeria, create jobs around the manufacturing, installation and maintenance of associated equipment and expand jobs in the creative sector (including presenters, producers, content creators, actors) which will now have enhanced outlets for distribution of creative content.

Local licensed manufacturers will expand production of components for the DSO equipment under the accelerated DSO programme. Other benefits of the programme will include an increase in digital television penetration across the country and provide an opportunity for increased revenue generation from the sale of the vacated spectrum. The DSO programme will reduce the cost of internet services and increase broadband penetration in Nigeria as well as provide opportunities for audience management which will add value to the Nigerian advertising sector.