Senator Okey Ezea has urged the federal government, as well as local and foreign investors, to focus on prospects in Nigeria’s rural areas in order to unleash the country’s riches, which has the potential to increase the country’s GDP by 30% over the next five years.
Senator Ezea, who represents Enugu North in the Tenth Senate, spoke during a conference in Nsukka, Enugu State.
He stated that purposeful rural development has the potential to increase the country’s GDP from current World Bank projections of roughly $1.315 trillion to $2 trillion or more if the necessary measures are adopted to harvest the hidden wealth in rural communities.
Senator Ezea believes that with the right policy actions, Nigeria’s rural population (which accounts for more than 45 percent of the total population) can contribute significantly more to the national GDP.
“When I talk about rural development, I don’t want to be misinterpreted as referring to the urbanization of rural regions.
“On the contrary, I am talking about the exploitation of the abundant economic opportunities in our rural communities, the creation of wealth through deliberate policy actions and redirection of investment opportunities,” according to him.
“Investing in economic prospects in our rural communities can provide us with significant benefits.
Continuing, he urged the government to create innovative financing alternatives for small-scale investors in rural areas at reasonable rates.
“In the past, the Federal Government established various special purpose financing instruments to encourage investment in rural agriculture and other sectors.
“One of these is the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NARDB).
“This unique bank was established to give single-digit financing to rural farmers and enterprises.
“I’m not sure how effective they’ve gotten, but there’s indication that more work has to be done to make a difference.
“The first step is to rethink disbursement procedures by converting thriving microfinance institutions dispersed over the country into disbursement channels.
“This will eliminate circumstances in which such special monies are misused by politicians and their associates.
“It will also ensure improved repayment frequencies and costs because it is the MFBs that will work out repayment plans failing which they will be excluded from future disbursements,” Ezea, the senator, stated.
These, he emphasized, will ensure that productive capital reaches rural entrepreneurs, curtail migration, and “become the nectar that will draw the interest of bigger private sector investors that will be attracted by infrastructure, an availability of opportunities along the value chain, thus changing the country’s economic fortunes in five years or less.
“If government at all levels becomes purposeful about this, the 30 percent increase I predicted will most certainly be exceeded.
“If used properly and profitably, our conventional agricultural resources are sufficient to revolutionize this economy.
“If we then exploit the various value chains of the crops we produce, like yams, cocoa, cassava, oil palm, and all the fruits and grains that thrive in many parts of this country, I do not see any reason why we wouldn’t be globally competitive in food production in a few years,” he told reporters.
