LAGOS – Mr Dele Odunowo, President, Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN), on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to invest more in solid minerals,[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″] agriculture and transportation.
Odunowo made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
He said that the nation’s economic challenges made it imperative for government to maximise the benefits of the enormous solid minerals, arable lands and human capital to create wealth and expand employment.
“Diversification is something that should have been happening before now but attention was taken by oil because of its ready value.
“Before then, we had commodities and solid minerals in which we are so rich.
“Solid minerals need to be opened up with liberal policies that can encourage Nigerians to go into the business.
“We do not know the value of the solid minerals that we have and the government has not done enough to educate or conduct researches into the wealth we have in them,” he told NAN.
“The discovery and management of solid minerals has been left largely in the hands of the experts in the field and thus, only little has been done.
“Government needs to invest in research on their availability, fund the research works and place value on them.
“Over 40 million tonnes of talc deposits have been identified in Niger, Osun, Kogi, and Kaduna States. There are huge deposits of coal ranging from bitumen to lignite in the Anambra Basin of South East.
“We have lead and zinc ores within Asaba, while we have tin, niobium, lead, around Oyo and Igbeti with as much over a billion tonnes of gypsum spread around Niger, Ondo, etc.”
The BRIPAN president also suggested that provision should be made for products for export to be semi-finished to add more value to them and generate more revenue from exports.
“Also in the area of agriculture, the government has been making efforts but more needs to be done.
“What should be done in the area of agriculture is that value should be placed on our exported goods by making them semi-finished.
“What I mean is that the government should reduce the volume of crude products that are being exported and empower more local manufacturers to make them into semi-finished goods.
“This will go a long way in reducing importation of finished goods which the raw materials are got from us.
“Investment in agriculture can never be too much,” Odunowo said.
He said that transportation was also another way through which the government could look at to diversify the economy.
Odunowo said the government could sign bilateral agreements with foreign countries to upgrade our rail, seaports and land transport systems.
“An example is seen in the Okoko-CMS Light Rail project. It is a laudable step that we must appreciate.
“There is a need for incoming government to focus on social infrastructure that people can see and benefit from.
“People are going to lose their jobs and there will be a lot of depression due to the heavy pressure that will come from taxation as an alternative means of revenue generation.
“The only way to avert this is to make conscious efforts at implementing the existing government policies in the aforementioned areas creation of more opportunities for the growth of the real sector,” he said.
Odunowo said the association had been collaborating with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Trade and Investment to pass the Insolvency Bill into law.
According to him, the bill will provide a legal platform for insolvency experts and legal practitioners to mitigate in ailing businesses in the country that could be revived. (NAN)