Obi identifies diversification, cut in governance cost as solutions to Nigeria’s economic challenges

The Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, said on Sunday Nigeria must look beyond oil for genuine development.

Obi, who stated this in a post on his Facebook page said diversification of the economy would put the country on the path of progress.

The former Anambra State governor decried the use of loans for non-essential projects.

He advocated balanced national budget as cost-saving measures for sustainable development in the country.

Obi wrote: “As a nation, Nigeria must look beyond oil. We, therefore, intend to leapfrog Nigeria from oil to the Fourth Industrial Revolution by expanding physical infrastructure through market-driven reforms that will unleash growth-enabling entrepreneurship and market-creating innovations.

READ ALSO: Unbalanced budget, borrowings bane of Nigeria’s economy — Obi

“To ensure sustainability and resilience, all loans must be invested in regenerative projects. We should pursue a drastic reduction in the cost of governance and corruption; improve the ease of doing business to attract Foreign Direct Investment to jumpstart industrialization and when borrowing is unavoidable, it will be strictly for production.

“It is also imperative that henceforth, we should strive to operate within available resources and strive for a balanced national budget as cost-saving measures.

“Whatever oil we still have will be refined domestically. These measures along with ending the leakages including the subsidy regime and improving our tax regime should do the magic of moving Nigeria from consumption to production.”

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