Nigerians have listed the top priority sectors in need of urgent attention for the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration in a recent survey conducted to appraise his performance during his first sixty days in office.
According to the respondents to the survey, the top priority sectors are agriculture, power and energy, healthcare, industrialisation and manufacturing, education, as well as food security and nutrition.
The least important sectors, according to the respondents, are civil service transformation, housing and urbanization, environmental management, creative, tourism and entertainment, as well as youths and sports.
The survey was conducted through a collaboration between CMC Connect LLP, Perception Consulting, and Analysts Data Services and Resources (ADSR).
“In the realm of governance, the first 60 days mark an essential juncture—a period of initial impressions, early policy unveiling, and a nation’s initial collective exhale as a fresh administration takes the helm. As the dawn of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration opens, we encounter ourselves at the mantra of “Renewed Hope”, witnessing and still expecting that the inception of strategies will sculpt the trajectory of our nation’s journey.
“This survey evaluated the policy initiatives and reforms implemented by President Tinubu during his first 60 days in office, and assessed the public sentiment and perception of President Tinubu’s regime, focusing on key stakeholders,” survey organisers said.
The survey solicited respondents’ opinions on the financial sector and investment environment, expenditure and revenue, governance, and citizens’ welfare.
Nigeria’s agricultural sector has been tipped to play a major role in employment creation and the diversification of the economy towards reducing the reliance on revenues from the sale of crude oil. Real sectoral GDP growth rate averaged 1.5 percent from the first quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023.
Specifically, the nation’s agricultural sector grew by 3.16 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2022; 1.2 percent in Q2 2022; 1.34 percent in Q3 2022, and 2.05 percent in Q4 2022, with an annual real growth rate of 1.88 percent in 2022. As of March 2023, it recorded a negative real growth rate of 0.9 percent.
In terms of contribution to GDP, Nigeria’s agricultural sector accounted for 22.36 percent of the nation’s GDP in Q1 2022; 23.24 percent in Q2 2022; 29.67 percent in Q3 2022, and 26.46 percent in Q4 2022, resulting in an annual contribution to GDP of 25.58 percent in 2022. Its contribution to GDP was 21.66 percent at the end of Q1 2023.
It should be recalled that with respect to agriculture and making food affordable to Nigerians, President Tinubu on July 13, 2023 declared a state of emergency on food security in Nigeria, a development many stakeholders attributed to the ravaging food inflation in the country which rose to 25.25 percent in June.
That the second sector listed as the top priority sector is power and energy is understandable especially now that the alternative source of energy which is either through diesel or petrol is unaffordable to many SMEs and households.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) the total electricity supply in Nigeria in Q1 2023 was 5,852 Gwh representing a decline of 1.74 percent when compared to 5,956 Gwh of electricity supplied to the nation in Q1 2022.
The Nigerian health sector has been in the news following the latest strike embarked upon by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors(NARD) who demanded better conditions of service from the federal government, as this could have informed the listing of the sector as a priority sector to FG.
A report published in June 2022 by Stears and Sterling reported by the Punch newspaper indicated that Nigerian households and businesses spent as much as $14 billion to generate alternative power. Available data from NBS show that the GDP of Nigeria’s electricity sector grew by an average of 0.81 percent from Q1 2022 to Q1 2023.
A total of 1,714 Nigerian respondents took part in the survey, covering all the six geopolitical zones in the country. The demographics of the respondents show that 10 percent of them are aged between 18 to 24 years. 19 percent are aged 25 to 34 years; 21 percent are aged 35 to 44 years; 22 percent are aged 45 to 54 years; 21 percent are within the 55 to 64 years bracket while 7 percent are 65 years and older.
By gender, 22 percent were females while 78 percent were males. In terms of region of residence, 63 percent of them are resident in the south west; 15 percent in north central; 7 percent each stay in north west and south-south; 5 percent from south east, while 2 percent are living in the north east.
