Managing Director/chief executive officer of Nigeria Export- Import Bank, Mr Abba Bello has said that human capital develoment through funding to support education, promotion of export services would help to achieve the economic diversification and promotion of the growth of non oil export in the country.
Bello who made this statement in Lagos while adressing financial Journalists said there was need to increase capitalisation of the development finance Institutions to enable them engage in big ticket transactions.
He said the increment was necessary given that the real sector, particularly agriculture, solid minerals and export sector required concessional long term funds for investment which are rarely available in the commercial banking system.
He said that while existing direct foreign investment (DFIs) have made notable contributions in their areas of focus, many of them have inadequate financial capacity that is commensurate with the current size of the Nigerian economy and the emerging opportunities.
Bello said that increasing funding to support education, particularly science and technology education as well as promotion of research and development would enhance innovation and boost global competitiveness.He however said that the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy needs to be fully implemented to enhance the level of funding to research and development which is currently at 0.22 per cent of Gross Domestic Products, as against a global average of 2.23 per cent and 0.50 per cent for Sub-Saharan Africa, according to data by UNESCO.
This according to him will help to enhance Nigeria’s intellectual property rights and patent registration.
Speaking further, he said there is need to review our education curricular to promote entrepreneurship development, while the research findings of our institutions should be commercialized.Given the critical role of infrastructure in promoting value added production and exports, he said strategies should be evolved to support the establishment of industrial parks and build more/improve existing Export Processing Zones as this appears to be the fasted way to address the huge funding requirement to bridge the infrastructure gap, recently estimated at $100 billion annually over the next few years by the Nigerian Infrastructure Concession Regulation Commission.He however pointed out that With the Services Sector contributing about 53 per cent of GDP, there was need to promote services export, especially exports of professional services.
