HomeBusiness We are committed to reviving the northern economy – Jani Ibrahim
We are committed to reviving the northern economy – Jani Ibrahim
Written by JOHN NWOKOCHA
Sunday, 26 October 2008
Engineer Jani Ibrahim, FNSE MNI, former managing director, chief executive, Nigerian Airways, Northern States Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, convener of the Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit, speaks on the idea and expectations. Excerpts
Jani
WHAT is the essence of this summit?The essence of the conference is to raise awareness about the economic situation in northern Nigeria and to see that the potentials that exist can be converted to wealth and that is why we have brought the stakeholders together in northern Nigeria for other parts of the country and also the international community to see how we can come up with a road map to achieve these objectives.
At what point in time did you realise that you have to galvanise northern Nigerians to articulate an economic roadmap?
Well, the indices that have been confronting us have been very frightening and coupled now with the global economic situation, we felt that the earlier we address our own internal problems before we get hit by the hurricane, the better, so the time could not have been more auspicious and that is why we decided it was time we get on with it and come up with a blueprint that can improve the lives of our people.
The North has always dominated power politically and, to a reasonable extent, economic power, while other regions, like the south east, complain about marginalisation. The president of the country is a northerner so why do you still talk about the north not being developed, or is it that you want to take another advantage of the president.
Well, it has nothing to do with the position of the presidency or that the president is from the North, it’s just a development in areas where there is need and the development of any part of this country, if it is properly harnessed and put together, is also a development for this country.
And that is why we have not limited this to northern Nigeria but have called all stakeholders to join us, and support this project. In the cause of this, we also hope that other areas in the country would look at this as a blueprint to see how they can arouse development in their areas so that, together, we can move forward as one country.
We have seen summits organised by the regions in this country, now you have followed that pattern, don’t you see it as a dangerous signal pointing towards regional economic powers rather than national economic integration?
This issue is based on suspicion, I think Nigerians should be open minded. Our own platform is the chambers of commerce of the 19 states of northen Nigeria. The chambers of commerce is an international movement that is recognised worldwide so I don’t think people should raise any suspicions.
Because, if you look at the heritage of the northern region, we share common heritage. Now, the challenges that are before us are also common to us because the indices in this part are so severe that we need to have a common approach to solving the problems. Other regions should also shapen what is happening in their own areas so that the development can be wholesome. We are looking at it holistically so the issue of suspicion does not arise.
But, what is new about the issues you have raised i.e poor development of the northern region, people had canvassed these things. So, how is yours going to create impact or cause positive change? We have not concluded the summit. And I don’t want to pre-erupt the outcome of the summit until a communique is issued. But let me re-emphasise that we are chambers of commerce, we are not talking about politics, we are talking about the economy - revival of the northern states in Nigeria.
What are the areas of need that this summit or your chamber has identified? We have looked at five key areas - agriculture, solid minerals, education, infrastrtucture and banking and financial services. These are the focus of this summit and we will be coming up with a useful action plan on the way forward.
What is the level of private sector involvement? The chambers of commerce is a private sector driven organisation. It’s the apex organisation of the private sector. In fact, what we are trying to do now is to see how we can have public private partnership, so that, together, the government and the private sector can come up with a blue print that is implementable with timeline that will encourage people to change their mindsets be entrepreneurial so that we can have economic revival and development in Nigeria.
What plan do you have for small and medium scale industries in terms of encouragement and support? Yes, small scale industries are the engine of growth for any economy and that is one area we are putting efforts and working hard to develop.
What development plan have you set for yourself, say, where will you take the economy in five year from now?
Well, it is the structure for this summit that we have adopted, we have technical consultants so we hope to come out with things that we can implement. We want to see how much we can get the multinationals to support us to fill the gap so that we can achieve concrete realisable results. We are talking about donor agencies and development partners. They are very key. Because where we lack capacity, they are willing to provide it.
Well, on our development plan, we are looking in the long-term based on the indices we see and I believe we should be able to see results in the next five or ten years. We should be able to see a turn around of this economy. The northern economy needs a lot of work to turn it around, particularly so because the indices are not favourable at all.
Areas such as school enrolment, healthcare that don’t speak too well for a country that needs to develop fast and we are tying this to the seven-point agenda of Mr President, that Nigeria should be one of the 20 world’s economies in 2020. We are also tying this to the national aspirations. We are very optimistic.
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