Nigeria needs strong institutions to actualise diversification – LCCI chief

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry says Nigeria needs strong institutions which adhere to sound corporate governance and international best practices to actualise a diversified economy.
The LCCI President, Nike Akande, said this on Wednesday during an International Investment Conference at the ongoing 30th Lagos International Trade Fair.
Akande said the regulatory environment should portray a sense of certainty and consistency in regulations and policies.
According to her, the industrial revolution the country badly needed requires massive inflow of foreign investments into the economy’s productive sectors.
She said the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan of the National Planning Commission was a 30-year coordinated roadmap towards resolving infrastructure deficit in the country.
Akande said the plan projected that the country would require $2 trillion for infrastructure development in the next 30 years.
She said: “Addressing the deficit will require attracting foreign investments to complement the deficit borrowing component of the budget.
“The government needs to provide the enabling environment to attract the needed investments from within Nigeria and abroad.”
Dr. Reuben Bamidele, the Representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, said that articulated economic intervention policies would be required to achieve the country’s diversification agenda.
According to Bamidele, Ministries, Departments and Agencies should be fully integrated and collaborations between the public and private sector should be maximised and strengthened.
He said that government’s investments should be channelled into areas that would promote more investments such as infrastructure, research and human capacity building.
Bamidele added that for the country to achieve effective diversification, the industrial sector must take its rightful place.
Earlier, Hajia Aisha Abubakar, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade, and Investment, said diversification would be implemented through immediate use of the country’s natural resources.
The minister said that the government had concluded a review of the National Enterprise Development Programme and increased its team to include the Standards Organisation of Nigeria.
Abubakar said the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control was also co-opted into the team for effective implementation of its programme.
Abubakar said that the government would continue to dialogue with the private sector in its bid to actualise its diversification agenda.