The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, says Nigeria needs to diversify its economy into non-oil resources to accelerate economic development.
Edun said this on Monday in Abuja, at the National Treasury Workshop with the theme, “Nigeria’s Revenue Challenges and the Way Forward: Exploring Non-Oil Alternatives”
According to Edun, who was represented by Mrs Lydia Shehu, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, the theme of the workshop is both timely and imperative.
“It underscores the urgent need to rethink our revenue generation strategies.
“This is especially in light of the volatile nature of oil revenues which has long been the backbone of our economy but recently facing a downturn.
“We must, therefore, embrace a diversified economic approach that taps into the immense potential of non-oil sectors such as agriculture, solid minerals, manufacturing, tourism, digital economy and creative industries,” he said.
He said that the recent global shifts in energy policies, declining oil demand and fluctuating crude prices have jointly made it abundantly clear that we cannot afford to be overly dependent on oil revenues.
He said that Nigeria was blessed with abundant natural and human resources that remain largely untapped.
“The question before us today is, how can we harness these resources effectively to drive sustainable economic growth and development?
“This workshop seeks to provide actionable answers to this question by fostering robust discussions among key stakeholders in the financial and economic landscape,” he said.
The minister said that several non-oil sectors have demonstrated strong potentials for revenue generation, job creation, and economic transformation.
He said that the time had come to aggressively explore non-oil sectors
He highlighted the critical revenue generating sectors to include, agriculture and agro-processing, solid minerals and mining, manufacturing and industrialisation, tourism and hospitality,
He also listed digital economy and ICT, as well as tax reforms and compliance.
“While the potential of non-oil revenue sources is evident, several challenges impede their full exploitation.
“Some of these challenges include poor infrastructure and high cost of doing business, bureaucratic bottlenecks and regulatory inefficiencies, insecurity and its impact on investment confidence, low tax compliance and widespread revenue leakages,” he said.
He said that the government was already taking bold steps to tackle the issues through reforms in public financial management, digitalisation of revenue collection, and strengthening of tax administration.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, said that the workshop is a yearly occasion where seasoned technocrats are invited to rub minds on salient issues confronting the nation’s economy
Madein said that it was with a view to proffering workable solutions in order to move the country forward.
She said that the theme for this year’s edition was considered apt considering the state of the economy owing to a multiplicity of factors ranging from the exchange rate volatility, low revenue performance and rising costs.
“These have complicated fiscal operations in the last few years.
“We are all gathered here to brainstorm on these papers to come up with robust and implementable communique capable of changing the current revenue challenges faced by the country.
“To this end, I charge us all to contribute meaningfully so as to proffer far-reaching recommendations for policy makers, both at the federal and sub-national levels,” she said.
