Sambo: North must diversify its economy

Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo has stressed the need for the north to diversify its economy, saying that is crucial to the growth and development of the region.

Sambo said this in Kaduna yesterday at a public lecture organised by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).

He said the north, like any other region, needed to articulate and implement policies that would ensure effective exploitation of natural and human resources for its transformation.

According to the vice president, this can only be achieved within the context of strategic development planning.

Describing the theme of the lecture, “Northern Nigeria Economy Free of Oil Revenues”, as most appropriate, Sambo said the development of the Northern Region Economic Development Agenda would not be a difficult exercise, given that all the states in the region had already articulated their individual vision documents.

He said what was left was the identification of areas of complimentary projects and programmes.

He said strengthening the synergy among the northern states would allow them to benefit from such economic sectors as agriculture, infrastructure, power and transportation.

According to him, at the national level, a long term strategic development blueprint tagged Vision 20:2020 has already been articulated as a homegrown agenda for stimulating economic growth, diversifying the economy away from oil and launching the country onto the path of sustainable and rapid economic development.

Reiterating the government’s commitment to a sustained improvement of the economic management that has impacted positively on the performance of the northern region and the country at large, Sambo said at the macro-economic level, the economy had remained resilient with a robust GDP growth averaging 7% between 2011 and2013 driven by the nonoil sector.