Fakoyejo Olalekan
The Presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, said Nigeria must look beyond oil, a week after it was revealed the commodity no longer contributes to the country’s foreign reserves.
Nigeria’s oil revenue once accounted for the majority of its foreign reserves, contributing about $3 billion monthly in 2014 during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelHowever, official data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) claims that crude oil contribution has depleted to zero dollar, indicating the country doesn’t benefit from the oil boom in dollar terms.
In a Twitter post on his economic plans , Peter Obi said Nigeria should no longer be dependent on oil, rather it should invest loans into regenerative projects.
“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.
“To ensure sustainability and resilience, we will stop borrowing for consumption. All loans must be invested in regenerative projects. We shall pursue a drastic reduction in cost of governance and corruption; improve ease of doing business to attract Foreign Direct Investment to jump-start industrialisation and when borrowing is unavoidable, it will be strictly for production.”
