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Monday 31 August 2015

Olashore Urges Government to Tap Into Under-Utilized Gold Mines

The Group Managing Director of Lead Capital Plc, Prince Bimbo Olashore, has urged government to move the country forward by tapping into the under-utilized goldmines in order to increase income for the nation, having noted that the Nigerian economy is well diversified in terms of contribution to GDP, but that the source of government revenue is not diversified.

He said this during his speech on “Revenue Diversification-The Bedrock of Sustainable Economic Development”, at the induction of new professional members into the Association of Investment Advisers and Portfolio Managers, recently held in Lagos.

Prince Bimbo Olashore
He advised that to reap the fruit of diversification, Government must get some economic-wide basics right which is not far-fetched from, employing good macro-economic management, running a counter cyclical fiscal policy to contain massive boom-bust cycles, soughting out exchange rate policy, opening trade policies, creating special places for selective credit policy, building other types of capital to complement natural resource wealth, and bringing down the costs of production in the new traded sectors, to spur efficiency and encourage entry.

Speaking on the issue of employment and SMEs, he x-rayed that it would be better to get a clearer picture of what we want to do, whether to engage in SMEs to solve employment issues or just to create profit in the sector. To this end, he canvassed that a master industry plan be employed in order to allow other SMEs partake at local level, noting that the bigger a company is, the more responsible it is in paying tax. He urged government to create and expand an environment for middle class, and long term policies.

According to the Governor of Lagos state, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who was represented by the duo of Mrs. Folashade Ogunnaike, Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office, and Mrs. Oluwatoyin Adebuji-Onikoyi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, stated that the challenge of revamping the economy is not impossible.


His words: “The Challenge of revamping the economy and repositioning it on the path of sustainable growth, is no doubt, daunting but not impossible. It certainly requires us to be more creative, reduce cost of governance, eliminate wastages, to be resolute in the fight against corruption, putting in place appropriate policies and incentives that will create the enabling environment for investment in the critical sectors of the economy. I believe the journey has commenced with the ongoing reforms at both Federal and state levels; What is required at this time is the support and co-operation of everyone including professional organizations.

According to the Managing Director, Afrinvest Ltd, Mr. Ike Chioke, designing an Integrate Planning Mechanism will help move this country forward. His words: “I think lack of political will to push it to fiction is a problem. We need infrastructure. We have much in this country that are under-utilized. Over the last decade, we recorded about 5% increase in GDP each year. I think what we need is to come up with an Integrated Planning Mechanism to put together the ideas and political will to achieving much and moving the country forward”. He further pointed out that if people could be successfully compelled to register for votes during election periods, and register for votes during election periods, and register for BVN as directed by CBN, then improving on taxation by enforcing compliance of tax payment could be a reality, starting from the top.

On his part, as regards diversification of the Nigerian Economy, The Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Akeem Oyewale, feels Nigeria can key into the entertainment sector, and financial services sector,  especially the insurance companies, to make people have confidence in them, thus generating revenue from it for the country.

Having admitted that much reform were done in the Agricultural and Power sectors, he urged Nigerian leaders to intensify these legacies by  appointing ministers who are professionals and has the ability to build on existing legacies, in order to ensure the retaining and sustainability of rate of deployment. On this, he went further to say that the commercial nature of the power sector services should be respected.

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