Stakeholder Charts Path To Economic Dev

A stakeholder in the manufacturing sector, Comrade Juliet Ekeh says with good incentives, manufacturers in the country will boost their investment and new investors will flood the sector.
Speaking with The Tide in Okoloma-Afam, Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State, Ekeh said, “The real sector of the economy can be revived by a deliberate policy of government through incentives to make the sector more profit oriented than trading.
“Entrepreneurs would invest in businesses, where they can get the maximum returns within the shortest possible time. Therefore, if enough incentives are provided, investors will move in droves to exploit the opportunities provided,” she said.
She appealed to the government to make the country’s business environment friendly enough to attract foreign investors into the manufacturing sector.
She added that agriculture is another sector that needs rejuvenation, lamenting that it is a shame that Nigerians have not exploited even 20 percent of the opportunities in the agricultural sector all these years.
According to her, “It is upsetting, when you travel along our highways and find stretches upon stretches of fallow lands which could easily be turned into farmlands. It is even more upsetting when you realise that the individuals who should be ploughing these lands are wasting in our cities looking for white-collar jobs that are not in existence. The government has to provide incentives to our youths to involve in farming,” she said.
Ekeh, a product of Federal Polytechnic, Nekede-Owerri, urged the government at all levels to work on improving the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), stressing that government should work on business registration.
On security, she admonished that conscious measures be put in place to improve the security situation in Nigeria, insisting that most investors would think twice in a country with seemingly insurmountable security challenges, adding, “The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) need to play the twin role of advising the government and advocating the cause of manufacturers”.

By: Bethel Toby