Aig-Imoukhuede calls for shift of attention from oil to agriculture, others

Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the Managing Director, Access Bank, has called for a phenomenal shift of government’s attention to agriculture and other sectors of the economy.
Aig-Imoukhuede made the call on Friday in a paper on “Financial Institutions In A Non-Oil Economy”, which he presented at the ongoing 9th All Nigerian Editors Conference in Asaba, the Delta State capital.
He said there was an urgent need for the shift because the country’s dependence on oil resources was dangerous since the oil market was already shrinking.
The managing director said the agricultural sector of the economy provided more employment opportunities than the oil sector.
He said the agriculture sector had been neglected by the government over the years.
He said: “If we do not diversify our economy, we will continue to devalue our naira and this means that we will continue to import inflation alongside goods and services.
“If we continue to do this, it entails adjusting wages and if we continue to adjust wages without the corresponding productivity, the nation will remain poorer.”
Aig-Imoukhuede noted that the country’s over-dependence on oil for so long had resulted in infliction of the economy with the “Dutch disease”.
The managing director said the more a country depended on one source of revenue, the more likely it would remain poor.
He said that the country’s economy was facing challenges because it exploited oil for decades without adding value to it and using revenue from it to massively develop infrastructure.
He said that the country also failed to use its oil wealth to complement other sectors such as agriculture, but rather suffocated them with oil money by failing to pay attention to them.
Aig-Imoukhuede also called for a review of legislation on the sharing of the country’s oil revenue, saying that oil revenue sharing had forced government to neglect other sectors of the economy.
He said the monthly sharing of revenue among the three ties of government was distorting the smooth running of the economy.
The managing director explained that the legislation provided for lodging of the oil revenue into one account and sharing same within one or two days.
He, however, commended the Federal Government for showing more than a passing interest in the agricultural sector in recent years.
Aig-Imoukhuede added that bank lending to the sector had increased from one per cent to four per cent in the last two and half years.