The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on Wednesday attributed Nigeria’s rising debt profile and budget deficit to its inability to diversify her economy.
RMAFC said this in Asaba at a two-day advocacy workshop for Nigerians from the South-South zone
The theme of the workshop was “Economic Diversification and Enhanced Revenue Generation”
The workshop’s communiqué signed by? Dr Casmir Anyanwu, Chairman of RMAFC’s Diversification Committee, condemned the dependence of all the tiers of government on allocations from the Federation Account.
It said that failure to diversify the economy had also accounted for infrastructural decay, high unemployment and high poverty rates in the country.
The communiqué said that although tourism business was capital intensive, but had enormous potentials to “rake in huge revenues“ for the country if properly exploited.
“To strengthen the nation’s economy and diversify its revenue base, priority attention should be given to agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals and tourism sectors.
“Agriculture in the country has over the years been bedeviled by poor policy designs, absence of prioritisation and duplication and inconsistencies in policy formulation and implementation.
“The Federal Government needs to evolve policies that will promote “small holder farmers” and to pursue agriculture in line with the concept of agro-business.
“Market Boards for agricultural produce should be resuscitated to guarantee the sale of products and incomes of farmers.
““And, there must be re-orientation of Nigerians to assure them that agriculture is a noble profession, not restricted to peasant farmers and the downtrodden,“ it said.?