The Acting Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Dr. Vincent Onome Akpotaire has said that the only way to check the encroachment of the over 380,000 hectres of arable land belonging to the 12 River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) in the country by unauthorized persons is to concession or lease such land to top flight investors who will irrigate them.

Speaking on the topic: Making the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) work when he appeared with another guest on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)’s breakfast programme-Good Morning Nigeria , Akpotaire maintained that handing over the land for subsistence farming as is widely canvassed would not yield the desired results and would also not bring value for money.

He said that such investors could train the subsistence farmers on modern farming techniques and at the same time use the dams to generate hydro power for the affected communities.

The BPE Acting boss stated that the RBDAs in the country had great potentials including abundant surface as well as ground water resources estimated to be over 250bn cubic meters yet to be exploited, fishery development, food storage & processing; and tourism & Water Sports.

In addition, he said when restructured/ commercialized, the RBDAs would boost the economy in several ways, including revenue generation, creation of direct and indirect jobs, alleviation of poverty and promoting diversification of the rural economy among others.

According to him, from the diagnostic studies carried out by the Bureau, there were willing Nigerian investors who want to invest in the RBDAs but that what was holding them back was the right framework.

He noted that the Buhari’s administration was keen on the reforms of the RBDAs to bring them back to their past glory; and that with the recent inauguration of the new management committees for the 12 RBDAs by the Federal Government the stage was now set for the reforms.

In his contribution, the Executive Director of the National Water Resources Institute Kaduna, Dr. Daniel Adanu attributed the failure of the RBDAs to live up to their mandate to lack of professionalism by those at the helm of affairs.

He noted that the present administration had shown commitment to revive the RBDAs and expressed the hope that with the zeal, they would soon begin to work in line with the vision they were set up about 40 years ago.

Adanu however opined that instead of allowing big time investors take over the RBDAs, the local farmers should be encouraged to take them as they produce the food eaten by the rich and the poor.