Follow Us on Google
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Statistician-General, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, has tasked states to work on developing their resources and avoid total reliance on the national oil and gas sector.
Speaking yesterday during the 2022 roundtable on economic diversification with the theme: “Participatory Riles of Youths in Nation Building”, held at the Army Resource Center in Abuja, Adeniran noted that the country has many resources to enable it to attain the status of a developed nation.
The Statistics boss who was represented by Mr Sunday Joel explained that with the oil boom in the early 60s other sectors have been left dormant for so many years.
He noted that the present administration’s economic diversification mandate, since 2015, has been looking into the nearly abandoned sectors to salvage the country’s economy.
Also, the Executive Director, Initiative For Leadership and Economic Watch in Nigeria, Amb Splendor Agbonkpolor stated that with the current situation in the country, diversification of the economy was the most viable way of achieving economic growth.
According to him, “we can no longer pretend at this dire moment that all is well with Nigeria and its citizens.”
Agbonkpolor noted that while other nations were suffering natural disasters, Nigeria is bedevilled by the man-made problem of abject poverty which is unacceptable considering the country’s abundance of both human and natural resources.
He said that the diversification of the economy will open access to greater economic and business opportunities whereby more financial investment by government and private investors in dormant sectors will become active and functional and propel the production of goods and services using local sources for imports and exports.
The Executive Director pointed out that certain sectors of the Nigerian economy were currently dormant and non-performing, which has limited the opportunities to work in them and earn a decent living listing that agriculture, mining, tourism, arts and crafts, rail transportation, manufacturing, food processing, packaging, the textile industry as well as shoe manufacturing exist barely on paper.
He stated that the above listed were viable sectors that could be opened up for investments and expansion to generate employment and wealth for Nigerians and even foreigners.
“It is the patriotic zeal that has prompted our two non-governmental organisations to put this conference together to assist the government in generating ideas for its use. Though the government at all levels are doing their best to curtail poverty, all Nigerians must collaborate with the government to assist on how to fight against poverty.
“The deplorable condition of the country is no longer deniable. The situation is so overwhelming that we can no longer sit idle and refuse to do something that can make a positive change. Nigeria is a highly blessed country, it is laughable that we are praying for the eradication of poverty as if nature imposed problems. The issue of poverty in the country is beyond prayers because it is man-made and only humans can make efforts to tackle it,” he further stated.
He stressed that economic diversification must begin from the grassroots.
