Gov. Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi has called for a legislative framework to serve as a guide toward diversification of Nigeria’s economy.
Bagudu said this at a public hearing on a bill for an act to establish the Nigerian Economic Diversification Council, held at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja on Monday.
He said that providing legislative framework would help convince other countries that Nigeria was serious about diversifying its economy.
Bagudu said that Nigeria was a blessed nation in all sense of the word adding that government needed to support different sectors of the economy to attain diversification from oil.
“We need to support different constituents of Nigeria to do better.
“We have done well in petroleum and gas not because it is the only sector; it is just that that is where we put in the most money.
“May be both the public and private sectors have put on an average basis between 1990 to 2010 which have been investing about 10 billion dollars in petroleum and gas.
“If you measure how much has been going into agriculture for example in that period may be its less than 500 million dollars,” he said.
Bagudu added: “So there is need for the diversification of the economy looking at areas such as agriculture and mining.”
The governor said that other sectors of the economy must be supported so that they could contribute more than they were contributing to the economy.
Speaking, Mrs Amaka Odili,the Director, Legal Services, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, said that the proposed bill was in the right direction.
In his submission, Mr Mkgeorge Onyung, the President, Ship Owners Association of Nigeria, said that the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) had been losing 41 billion dollars daily due to poor management of the maritime sector.
He also said that NPA was making an average of 2 million dollars instead of 43 billion dollars as daily revenue.
Onyung said that shipping was the biggest business in the world; hence, Nigeria should pay attention to it.
“Shipping is 90 per cent of global trends and as far as the world is concerned, nothing moves, and nothing goes on without shipping, and without shipping, there is no shopping,” he said.
