The Chief Executive and Managing Director of Koinonia Ventures Limited, Mr. Femi Boyede, who is also a World Bank Consultant, has asked God to allow Nigerian oil wells to dry up.Boyede, an initiator of the International Trade Centre (ITC), in Nigeria and convener of the first ever Nigerian Non-Oil Exports Conference, Exhibition and Awards (NNECEA 2010), holding in Abuja this week, told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that, his prayer was informed by the near total neglect of other sectors of the economy, especially the real sector, including agriculture, which, in the past, was the mainstay of the nation’s economy, but which has been neglected in preference for crude oil.
He wonder why the groundnut pyramids in the North; the red oil in the East; and the cocoa in the West, which used to be the country’s sources of foreign exchange earner, were no more.
Boyede stressed: “Actually, this year, part of my prayer points is that God should take away oil from Nigeria. Let the crude oil dry up or let something happen that Nigeria won’t have oil again; it’s still my prayer point.
“And the reason is quite simple. When I was born, I grew up knowing Nigeria to be a flourishing nation that had no oil. I grew up here in the North; so, I knew all about the groundnut pyramids. I grew up in Niger State. So, I knew all about mangoes and sheanuts and how economically viable they were and the kind of economic activities they generated.
“But, all of a sudden, everything went away and our brain went dead, because we suddenly found oil, and you find out that even the people in the oil industry, they have a platform on an annual basis, the Nigerian Oil and Gas. It happened in Abuja in February, a forum where everything that happened is reviewed. That is the reason why I went to Nigerian Exports Promotion Council with a proposal of this concept”.
According to him, the conference tagged: “Non-Oil Exports As Driver of Nigeria’s Vision 20: 2020” is organized to attract all stakeholders in the non-oil export sector, including, among others, micro, small and medium enterprises(MSME), top exporters, banks, shipping lines, insurance companies, chambers of industry, and government agencies.
Some of the salient issues to be addressed, Boyede added, include: Reviving Nigeria’s Textile Industry, Promoting Targeted Agribusiness Export Potentials, Developing a New Incentives Basket for Nigeria’s Exports, Challenges of Export Financing in Nigeria, Harnessing Opportunities in Tourism Exports.
(Source:Leadership, Nigeria/The Norwegian Council for Africa)
