Editorial- Recession: Overcoming through agro-industry

 agro-industry

At independence in 1960, Nigeria was classified as an agric–based economy. And all the regional and the central governments were able to run relatively well without recourse to borrowing.
  And this was so until the oil boom of the early 1970s to early 1980s which displaced agriculture as the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy and this has continued until the bubble burst, first in the early 1980s and now in the recent past 2015. Since that time, due to a combination of factors, Nigeria’s economy is now in recession. Recession means a situation whereby a country is unable to finance its way because it earns less than its expenditure. Some of the accompany symptoms are huge state debts, high unemployment rates, hunger, poverty, high crime rate and so on.

How do we get out of this? First there is a need to diversify the source of revenue by going back to agriculture and mining as the mainstay of the economy with emphasis on agro processing as a lot of vacuum has been created in this end of value chain of agricultural productivity where a lot of jobs and wealth can be created. The difference between what Nigeria did with agriculture 56 years ago and now will be the level of emphasis that can be laid on processing and exportation of semi processed materials and fully manufactured products for foreign exchange earnings as so much emphasis has been in the production end.

 First there must be a deliberate policy to shift paradigm from being exporter of raw materials to the exportation of manufactured goods; creation and strengthening of a national system of innovation; provision of seed capital in form of loans to entrepreneurs who go into agro-industry and the provision of adequate infrastructure and insurance facilities to take care of risks. In fact the injection of 450 billion naira of the Federal Government must sufficiently look the way of agro processing centres and supporting entrepreneurs at this end of the economy if any multiplier effect of the money should be expected. Also important is the role of regulatory bodies like NAFDAC and SON which should be paternalistic towards the entrepreneurs rather than see the whole thing as a revenue earning venture: The aim is to see Nigeria moving up the ladder and joining the league of exporting nations soonest. 

The plan will lay emphasis on localness of the raw materials, most of the equipment and all the personnel and every local government would have a project peculiar to its environment just like it was drawn up under the one local government, one product campaign.