The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has called on Deltans to explore the ingredients beyond oil to tackle the poor economic challenges, rather than trading blames on the fall of oil prices.
While urging them to invest on locally made products, the Minister said “Delta has everything it needs to succeed. It has educative people, natural resources, population, arable land, infact; there is nothing really you don’t have. The only thing we need now is to execute on the potentials. And, that is easier said than done, but we will get there. So, the real potential of Delta State clearly lies beyond oil”.
She said that looking at the big names from Delta who have made headway in the nation, none of them made their money through oil, noting that all the ingredients of success was with Deltans, but the problem was how to unlock the potentials.
Adeosun, who disclosed this during the Delta State Economic and Investment Summit in Asaba on Wednesday noted that economic challenges was no unique to Delta as a state also with Nigeria adding that. “If we solve Delta problems, we have solved the problems of Nigeria, Nigeria has the same constituency as Delta. You have a wide range of people with different languages, cultures, natural endowment, and lots of people among others. The question is, how do we get growth? And the answer is that paradox lies in having a clear vision of what is possible as well as a clear eye in our rich historical antecedents”.
She added that “development of projects that can engage people in productive economic activities is critical to growth. The current challenges of revenue created by the fall in oil prices are much an opportunity as they are a disadvantage. I’m convinced that the worst thing that can happen to Nigeria now is rapid recovery in oil price because we will go back to the same laziness that brought us to our knees, which is, where we are now”.
The Minister stated that Nigeria needed to see current economic crunch as an opportunity to revoke, noting that if Nigeria had worked concertedly as a nation, we wouldn’t be in the condition we are today’ we wouldn’t be looking inwards and thinks about some of the things we are thinking about now”.
She said some of the opportunities Nigeria was currently embracing which included aqua-culture, manufacturing among others were unattractive compared to, “Going to government, getting a contract and making a lot of money very quickly. Now, we are going back to the basis. And those fundamentals outlived oil because those are skills that will be transferred from generation to generation, and therefore, more valuable than oil”.
Adeosun explained that the states challenges looked similar to the kind of challenges she encountered when she was a commissioner in Ogun State, while recalling that at that time many persons were residing in Ogun, but working in Lagos, “and were not paying their taxes, and so, so I ensured that we told them to tell their employers to pay their taxes or else they will pay twice. At the end, we were able to grow our revenues from 700 million to 8billion a month by the time 1 left”.
Mrs. Adeosun urged Governor Okowa to place premium in the collection of taxes from people who are residing in Delta State, but working in neighbouring states, asserting that one of the ways the government of the state could improve and sustain it’s economy was by being aggressive and unapologetic in the collection of taxes from neighbouring states even if it meant engaging in a fight.
She also advised the state government to look inwards with a view to blocking all leakages in governance, while assuring that such move would go a long in ensuring sustainable revenue base for the state.
