on salient economic issues and the way forward. Excerpts:
I want to start by thanking you for granting us audience despite your tight schedules. We are indeed very grateful. Now, as council members of Kadccima, we appreciate your organization’s contributions in the socioeconomic growth and development of our dear country. We also commend your medium for your objectivity and fairness in reporting. As you are aware, our coming here today is to thank you and your management for the support you have been giving us as a chamber and all our activities, particularly the annual international trade fair.
In the same vein, we want to request formally for such continuous support and cooperation especially now that we are coming up with a number of activities to promote the business environment of our dear country. The purpose of our coming here today is to inform you about preparations for our 37th International Trade Fair. The fair is scheduled to hold from 26th of February to 6th of March, 2016 at the usual venue. The theme for this year’s edition is “Promoting Solid Minerals Sector for Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria.”
The opening ceremony comes up Saturday 27th of February, 2016 at 10.00am. Unlike last year, we had the trade fair between April/May but our traditional days/months are February/March. Last year, we held it in April/May because of the general election. This year, it will come up in February which is the traditional period for the fair. During the 10-day event we have lined up a lot of activities.
We are going to hold the sixth edition of quiz competition for secondary schools in all the 19 northern states. The grand finale will come up on Saturday 27th February 2016 at 4.00pm, at the conference hall of Kaduna International Trade Fair Centre. There will be a one-day seminar on the theme of the fair. The event will take place on March 1, 2016 at the conference hall of the trade fair complex. It is expected and we are hopeful the former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, will chair the seminar.
The maiden edition of the seminar was chaired by Chief Ernest Shonekan; the second edition was presided over by General Abdulsalam Abubakar; we try as much as possible to play up topical issues that affect Nigeria as a country and it is something that draws scholars and public. In the evening of Saturday 5th of March, there will be a farewell dinner in honour of our exhibitors. Our presence in your office today is to request for your usual cooperation, to give the trade fair the much needed publicity both before and during the event. Once again I thank the management and staff of Vanguard, and to thank you very much for your time.
Activities beyond annual trade fair
Just as I have said, apart from the seminar, the quiz competitions and dinner outlined during the 10-day events, we also try as much as possible to do some other things. For example, we intend to have a round-table discussion on solid minerals development. It will bring together people in government, scholars and private sector because if you look at it now as I am talking to you, Nigeria is a mono-cultural economy dependent on oil and the price of crude oil is non-existent. Somebody might ask the question: How do you see Nigeria in the next four years, not necessarily during the life span of the current administration?
As far as I am concerned, an adage says “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and what I normally say is water will always find its level. I know we will survive whether we like it or not; we will now be forced to go back to what we have neglected in the past. Look at the rate at of the dollar to Naira today –N305 to $1. It has repercussions on us in all ramifications. The solid minerals God has endowed us with; agriculture which has sustained us till now and the proceeds of which we used to discover oil we have neglected and we are now being forced to go back to what we have neglected.
Other activities
What actually we didn’t consider in those days about the real sector is what the way forward is, what do we have to do? We have to go back to the real sector-solid minerals, agriculture and manufacturing. That is why at KADCCIMA, what we have done apart from the usual international trade fair which only provides platform for manufacturers and investors to come and exchange ideas, technical know-how and so on. We try to have a calendar of Activities not necessarily annual trade fair. First, we want to have something like solid minerals fairs, second, agriculture post harvests management fairs and third, education fairs, so that in a year, we have flurry of activities; we won’t just focus only on the annual trade fair. We want to focus on other sectors that can contribute to our GDP.
On VAT increase to 10%
There had been a push to increase Value Added Tax, VAT, from five to ten percent. I laughed. You want to punish somebody for someone’s mismanagement? People mismanaged our resources and I asked: the five percent you are charging on VAT, how far have you gone, have you even been able to collect it? Now, you want to push it to ten percent simply because you want more revenue and when the revenue comes, you mismanage it. So these are things we actually need to focus on.
Challenges ahead for economy
Agriculture, for example, in those days when we were in primary and secondary school, what we learned and have been teaching our children and great grand children is that 70-80 percent of Nigeria population are farmers. Then, you ask yourself and so what? Does that translate to food on our table, does that give you enough food; does that make Nigeria a food exporter? What percentage of maize are we producing in a year-probably about 3-5 percent of tonnage? So what happened to Nigeria, why can’t we produce something that will feed us; what are the challenges?
The incumbent president, when he was a military head of state, encouraged multinationals to go into agriculture. That was when we saw the likes of UAC, Cadbury, Guinness, Nestle and Nigeria Breweries going into agriculture with backward integration as an objective. What happened?
Why did these companies exit the farms? Let’s ask ourselves these questions; what actually helped the government of those days to encourage the multinationals to go into agriculture was because of the competing needs- the multinationals were going into the consumer market to compete with consumers which brought about escalation in prices of our farm produces. After the government of those days encouraged them to go into backward integration, they want 10 percent, then what happened? These are the challenges we really need to address before we can move forward in agriculture.
On govt policies
Then, we also ask ourselves; what about government policies? The last administration of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, had a very good minister of agriculture who actually tried to bring about some changes in terms of agricultural transformation. He introduced Growth Enhancement Scheme, GES. In fact, when I met him, I said I wish your transformation policy could be taken to a peak of no return. Then, what is the focus of the present day government? To me, I believe things are too much at the centre. You have the agric minister who rolls out policies, then, you ask yourself, considering our structure in Nigeria in terms of the Federal, States and local governments, are the minister of agriculture, the commissioners for agriculture and the local government chairmen operating at the same wave-length? If they are not, we are deceiving ourselves.
If this government wants to build on that, we really need to address it so that we will be able to empower farmers. This is the challenge. Those that participated in the scheme last year have not been paid. Am I right? Yes. This is to tell you they hold your money for 2-3 years- is the purpose not defeated? Absolutely! If I were the minister of agriculture today, I will do what the FCT minister did. I will reduce the workforce. There is no point having ten people do the jobs of three persons. That is callous.
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