By Cynthia Ezekwe.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has called on industry players to improve investments in the energy sector, particularly power and renewable energy, to drive industrialisation, accelerate national development and unlock the viable opportunities in the economy,
Akinwumi Adesina, AfDB boss, stated this at a summit organised recently in Abuja by the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), tagged “Trade and non-oil export: Changing the narrative for rapid national development organised, noting that investment in energy would not only further diversify the economy and reduce dependence on oil, but also make Nigerian industries and businesses more competitive as well as accelerate the country’s integration in regional and global supply chains.
The AfDB president, who was represented by Lamin Barrow, the director-general of AFDB, at the summit, pointed out that investment in the renewable energy and power sector presented the best alternative to oil.
“I can’t overemphasise the urgency to prioritise the energy sector investments to unlock the opportunities in the economy. Nigeria must decisively fix its power sector once and for all”, he said.
According to him, some African countries- including Egypt and Morocco have experienced a rapid turnaround because they invested massively in the energy sector adding that these countries rolled out a solar programme that saw massive increase in energy generation capacity to drive industrialisation and a competitive economy by tapping abundant gas resources under public-private partnership.
The AfDB president further urged the Nigerian government to invest in renewable energy generation, especially solar, leveraging the platform of the desert power initiative aimed at providing electricity for 250 million people across the Sahel which includes northern parts of Nigeria.
Adesina noted that Nigeria’s poor revenue has been further aggravated by low trade volumes particularly for manufactured exports, as well as underdeveloped agricultural value chains, adding that while Nigeria’s export of goods and services as a percentage of GDP is 10.7 percent, the lowest among its peers in Africa, the manufacturing export represents only three percent of total revenues.
To this end, he recommended some key policy priorities for Nigeria to accelerate national development, which includes improved tax collection, administration and blocking of leakages, boosting of agricultural productivity and value chain in partnership with the private sector, as agricultural contribution to GDP remains poor.
On his part, Taiwo Adeniyi, NECA president and council chairman, informed that the body and its partners aim to expand the employment net in Nigeria by deepening economic activities in non-oil export to create job opportunities.
“We expect this summit will engender new investment and opportunities to change the narratives, and the figures of unemployed persons will reduce,” Adeniyi added.
