The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Waziri Adio, has said that country’s natural resource endowments can translate to real and sustained prosperity if the nation maximises the opportunities they offer and manages the revenues derived from them in a prudent and transparent manner
Adio spoke during the 3rd Annual Dauda Adegbenro Foundation Lecture in Ibadan, which had as its theme, ‘Transparency in the extractive sector: Driving wealth creation and sustainable revenue as solution to economic recession’.
At the event were Justice Deinde Soremi, who was the chairman; Niyi Adegbenro, Adesina Adegbenro and other speakers. The Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, was represented at the event by his Chief of Staff, Dr. Gbade Ojo.
Adio said that in almost 60 years of independence, Nigeria had failed to manage its natural endowments well, adding that it was vital for the nation to look beyond natural resources in order to achieve real development.
The NEITI executive secretary said that economic activities around the world had also shown that the wealth of nations was not under the ground but over it.
He stated, “In terms of natural resource endowments, our country could as well be the biblical Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey; just that the milk and the honey have not been appropriately harnessed to nourish and benefit the mass of our people. Nigeria is richly endowed with oil and gas. With 37.1 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, Nigeria has the 11th largest oil reserves in the world and is the world’s eighth largest exporter of crude oil.
“Despite being a major oil and gas producing country for 60 years, it is clear that we have not fully optimised and maximised the opportunities in the oil and gas value chain. The picture is grimmer in the solid minerals sector, where Nigeria is blessed with large deposits of 44 different minerals spread across the country. According to data from the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Nigeria has, among others, 639 million metric tonnes of proven reserves of coal, but production is only at 0.04 million metric tonnes.”
“We need sustained investment in health, education and in critical modern infrastructure that will make our economy more competitive and expand the creative, productive and competitive capacities of our people.”
