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By Henry Umoru, ABUJA

THE Senate has asked the Federal government to as a matter of urgency,  fast track the implementation of the National Industrial Revolution Plan,  NIRP for jobs and wealth creation in the country.

The position Senate was made yesterday by the Chairman of its Committee on Industry,  Senator Adetokunbo Abiru,  APC Lagos East during the 2022  budget defence before the Committee by the Minister of State for Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Ambassador Mariam Katagum.

The Senate said that the Federal government should through the Committee  Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment put in place the

 National Industrial Revolution Plan.

Abiru who noted that the  Industrial Revolution Plan is key to the policy of diversification being worked upon by the federal government geared towards jobs and wealth creation, said, “The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment should be the key driver of the policy and must order its priorities in that direction.

“The shrinking capital budget for the Ministry as obtained in the document submitted is not encouraging.

“For the records, while in 2017 and 2018, the capital votes for the Ministry was N19billion repeatedly, it dropped to N8.8billion in 2019 and further dropped to N3.8billion in 2020 before rising to N6.5 billion in 2021 which is also the projected vote for 2022.

“These to us in this Committee are not encouraging budgetary provisions for a Ministry that should drive the Industrial Revolution Policy

“As a result of this, the committee will from time to time, want an update on the practical implementation of the policy.”

In her presentation,  the Minister of State said that the envelope budgeting system was responsible for the monies earmarked for the Ministry on a yearly basis which according to her, is not completely incapacitating the Ministry from the required implementation of the Industrial Policy Plan.

She said, “We at the Ministry, are not unmindful of the onerous task before us as far as the policy on industrial revolution is concerned.

“In  line with the policy, the Ministry is encouraging investors to set up sugar plantation companies in strategic areas of the country as well as Cotton, Textile and Garments Industries.”

According to her, these are different from Agro Processing Centres set for creation across the 109 Senatorial Districts as projected in the 2022 budget implementation.

On revenue generation, she told the committee that out of the projected N1.6billion targeted for 2021, N1.1 billion has been realised out of which N1billion has been remitted into the Consolidated Revenue Fund ( CRF).