Financial operators have said that the government plan to use agriculture and natural resources to fund 2016 budget might not be feasible as the fundamentals and assumption on which projections are based appeared not to be realistic in our present environment. They said that for the government to achieve the expected result, it would first of all mapped out those areas that are good for agricultural production, stressing that agriculture was not viable in all the states of federation.
They said that apart from carving out areas where agricultural products could be produce, the government needs to support those areas with, extension of farm products, farm machinery and agricultural officers as well as provide social amenities in those areas.
Managing Director Maxifunds Securities Limited, Mazi Okechukwu Unegbu said with provision of electricity, water, good roads to enable farmers move their farm products to the town and other infrastructure facilities in the rural areas would encourage youths to relocate and live in rural areas and still practice farming.
He explained that no matter the amount of fund invested in the agricultural sector without providing basic social amenities in those areas it would be difficult for people to accept to reside in the remote environment to engage in farming.
He said that the nation’s economy can only grow when “people acquired a skill, apply the skill to work, earn salary out of it, spend it in the economy, so that production circle can continue and it will in return create both low class and high class employment.”
To him as long as our leaders believe on collection and sharing of money, there would be no room for production of local goods and this wound continue to impact negatively on the growth of the economy. He however said that for the current administration to use agriculture and mineral resources to fund budget, we must restructure the six geopolitical zone in the country and allow each of them to revive the agricultural products and mineral resources produce from their various zones.
He said in the past, Western part of the country are good in production of Cocoa while Northern and Eastern states produce groundnut and palm oil, stressing that restructuring them and giving those states the opportunity to operate and compete among themselves, it would make the economy to grow faster than expected.
Another operators who pleaded anomyty said the first step to take in order to revive the economy is for the government to block all the “linkeages’ to ensure that all the ministries account for all the funds allocated to them. The operator also expressed the need for the government to increase the income tax from five to 10 percent, stressing that diversification of the economy would be the last stage as investment in agriculture would take two or three years before it would start impacting on the economy.
The managing director, H.J. Trust and Investment Mr Harrison Owoh said the Nigeria has been depending on oil for so long and the past government have been and has been paying lip service on the issue of diversification of the economy, stressing that the only way to achieve a better result in the development of agriculture and mineral resource is for the government to start from basic fundamentals. Owoh said that if the present administration will start to develop agriculture and mineral resources today, it would help the country to achieve economic growth in future. He explained that although it would take time to develop non oil sector for foreign exchange earnings but we need to start now to save the nation’s economy from collapsing.
