Business
Jonathan Advises African Leaders On Industrialisation
President Goodluck Jonathan
has called African leaders to prioritise the structural transformation of African economy if they must achieve regional industrialisation initiative.
Jonathan said this in Abuja at the 7th Joint Annual Meeting of the Economic Community of African Conference of African Ministers of Finance.
He said: “the theme of this conference, industrialisation for inclusive and transformative development in Africa is of special relevance to Africa at this time. Here in Nigeria, it corresponds with the transformation agenda and ongoing programme of national renewal.
“The structural transformation of African economy must continue to be a core priority to close the poverty gap and industrialisation must be key for transformation.”
He said African economies in the 1980s and 1990s had gone through many challenges and saddled with high foreign debts.
According to him, the GDP growth of most countries was about two per cent on the average but has reversed recently.
“Our foreign debts are in decline and the foreign direct investments are positively coming up in the continent. “In fact, African Diaspora are also investing robustly in our economies and in the past decade African economy has grown to about five per cent,” he said.
He noted that the benefits of the positive economic growth had been restricted by inequality, noting that countries must work together for the benefits to spread to the grassroots.
He said that although many of the African economies had been classified as middle income, frontiers and MINT economies, they still shared common challenges and noted that some of the challenges which needed to be fixed included job creation, industrialisation and building social safety nets.
“We need to focus on industrialisation as a backbone for our structural transformation,” he added.
Jonathan noted that the impact of industrialisation in countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brazil, among others, remained relevant adding that Nigeria had continued to learn from them.
He said the launch of the industrial plan was to boost the sector from four per cent of GDP to 10 per cent by 2017 and that the plan focused on four areas of light manufacturing, agro business, petrochemicals as well as solid minerals and metals.
This, he said, might not take off until the nation’s infrastructure was fixed adding that same would be applicable for the continent, stressing that Nigeria had made infrastructure core priority and had transparently done the power sector privatisation and the launch of the construction of N117 billion second Niger bridge.
He called for effort to ensure that positive economic growth in the region was translated to jobs to change the lives of Africans.
“As we grow our economies it’s our obligation that we carry everyone along; we can learn from some of the social programmes introduced by Latin American countries. We must ensure that the social protection programmes will become financially sustainable and also reach the reality of those that need our support,” he said.
He urged the conference to focus on issues as they affect the continent especially in the areas of corruption, insecurity and come out with practicable recommendations.
“Whenever you mention security, I always remember that sometimes when you look at the characters that carry the weapons in turbulent areas, including the Northern part of Nigeria, you see a young person carrying AK47 equivalent of $1000.
“But the total thing he wears in the body is not up to $50; so where is the money coming from that they use in buying these weapons to kill and increase our problems.
“We need to find out if there are external forces that don’t want Africa to grow by providing these weapons,” he said.
Stakeholders are expected to converge in Lagos today to take a look at the Nigeria’s preparedness to maximize the gains of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The Tide learnt that stakeholders will be converging at the instance of a popular online newspaper, Primetime Reporters, to assess the progress made so far by the Federal Government through the National Action Committee on AfCFTA agreement.
The event which is the Third Annual Lecture and Awards of the online medium has as its theme: “Assessing Nigeria’s Preparedness to Maximize the Gains of AfCFTA.”
The event will also witness conferment of awards on eight eminent Nigerians who have distinguished themselves in various fields of human endeavours.
The Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of Primetime Reporters, Mr. Saint Augustine Nwadinamuo, made this known in a statement made available to The Tide in Lagos on Monday.
According to him, the event will hold at the National Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos beginning from 10.00am.
Nwadinamuo said that the event would be chaired by a renowned legal practitioner, Barr. Osuala Emmanuel Nwagbara of the Maritime and Commercial Law Partners, Lagos, while the Director General, Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Muda Yusuf, would be the lead paper presenter.
By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has arrested a leader of a deadly 419 syndicate, Abayomi Kamaldeen Alaka (a.k.a Awise) over an alleged attempt to swindle an innocent Nigerian of N250 million.
The Tide learnt that the syndicate operates from a shrine at Ashipa Town, near Abeokuta, Ogun State.
According to a statement made available to The Tide in Lagos on Sunday, by the EFCC, Awise’s arrest followed a petition by his victim, Juliet Bright who lost N250m to the fraudster after she was tricked to provide money for sacrifices and invocations to heal her of an ailment.
The statement said Bright was introduced to Alaka by one Akinola Bukola Augustina (a.ka. Iya Osun) whom she met on Facebook in the course of her search for solutions to her health challenge.
What drew her to Augustina was the latter’s post under the name, Osunbukola Olamitutu Spriritual Healing Centre.
Once Bright contacted Augustina, the latter promised to heal her if she could pay N16 million.
The victim paid the money through an Access Bank account belonging to one Mohammed Sani, who later turned out to be a Bureau De Change Operator.
After paying the money without receiving healing, Augustina transferred the victim to other members of the syndicate, notably Awise.
Bright revealed that she met Awise at his shrine in Ashipa Town and was hypnotized and subsequently transferred various sum through bank accounts and in cash to the suspect and his syndicate members, until she lost N250 million to them.
Despite all the monies collected from her, her health conditions has never improved.
By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos
An expert in Quarantine Agriculture, Dr Vincent Ozuru, has advised Nigerian farmers to give more attention to growing plants produce that could be exported.
He said that plant like the hibiscus, popularly known as Zobo is on high demand in some countries around the world, today.
Ozuru who gave the advice while speaking to aviation correspondents at Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, noted that some plants produce, particularly hibiscus, had yielded huge revenue to the Federal Government through export.
According to him, Nigeria exported about 1,983 containers of hibiscus to Mexico alone in 2017 and earned $35 million within nine months of that year.
The agricultural quarantine expert explained that the export of the plant had a setback as a result of storage pest discovered by the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service in some consignments.
“The issue has now been taken care of and the export is resuming again, and all matters have been resolved with the stakeholders across the value chain.
“Mexico is the largest importer of Nigerian hibiscus, and our farmers should brace up to the challenge.
“The good news is that Nigeria has a vast growing belt in hibiscus, and the harvest is available all year round.
“We need to take advantage of this opportunity to earn foreign exchange for ourselves and for the country at large, even with the commitment of the present administration to diversify the economy”, he said.
Ozuru called on Nigerian farmers to show more commitment to the growing of export produce and also endeavor to get ready information on it in order to increase their income.
By: Corlins Walter
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