By Ginika Okoye
An Economist with the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK) says reviving the facility sector and making certain worth addition are components that may contribute to harnessing the nation’s financial potentials.
Dr Abdul Ibrahim, the Head of Economic Department of NSUK, mentioned this on the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Abuja Chapel, 2026 Press Week on Wednesday.
Ibrahim mentioned that authorities should decentralise energy and prioritise secure vitality, as no financial system would progress in darkness.
He regretted that uncooked supplies like lithium and sesame have been being exported and their completed merchandise imported again into the nation.
The economist prompt that establishing vibrant processing zones would allow the nation to harness its potentials.
He mentioned the media should champion abilities acquisitions revolution of the youths for efficient growth.
Ibrahim additionally famous that authorities may leverage programs just like the National Identification Number (NIN) and Bank Verification Number (BVN) to finance the casual sector.
The economist added that offering low curiosity credit score and assist for Small and Medium-Enterprises (SMEs) would assist in the event of the financial system.
He categorised the nation’s financial potential into 4 important pillars together with the human, inexperienced, brown and the blue pillars.
According to him, Nigeria possesses over 70 million hectares of land however solely 40 per cent of that arable land is cultivated.
”While the agricultural sector contributes 24 to twenty-eight per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs over 35 per cent of the workforce, authorities spending on meals importation (rice, sesame, and fish) exceeded 10 billion {dollars} as of 2025.
”Nigeria holds about 44 stable minerals throughout its 36 states, with an estimated in-ground worth of 700 billion {dollars}.
”However, just one.8 per cent of those mineral deposits contribute to the GDP in comparison with 6.2 per cent in South Africa and 30–38 per cent in Botswana.
”The artistic and movie business accounts for about 58 per cent of the GDP, but this sector stays largely undertapped and underfinanced.”
Ibrahim highlighted that exportation of vital uncooked supplies, productiveness disaster, belief deficit and coverage inconsistency had hampered the nation’s prosperity.
He urged the media to all the time disseminate credible information including that no nation would prosper with out dependable info.
NAN reviews that the title of the lecture is ”Harnessing Nigeria’s Economic Potentials for Greater Prosperity”.(NAN)
Edited by Deborah Coker
