By Uzor Odigbo
The Association of Maritime Journalist of Nigeria (AMJON) has again called on the federal government of Nigeria to focus its attention on the non-oil sector.
The call was made at the 5th and 2023 edition of the association’s annual conference and awards with the theme: “Rebuilding Nigeria Economy Towards a Viable Trans-Border Trade” in Lagos on Thursday, December 14, 2023.
President of AMJON, Paul Ogbuokiri, in his opening remarks, underscored the need to look inwards in order to rekindle Nigeria’s economy, as in the early days of the country’s independence, focusing more on Non-oil trade.
According to him, the theme of the conference was deliberately selected owing to the poor state of Nigeria’s monolithic economy which requires speedy solution to lift the country out of crisis situation.
He expressed concern over the nation’s unfavourable balance of trade occasion by over dependance on oil and the apparent lack of concern by relevant authorities.
“Now the shock has become permanent because our crude oil has become encumbered.
“large portion of it now goes into payment of debts acquired and squandered by politicians while the other portion of it is being stolen by powerful people.
“We are therefore left with little or no foreign exchange to finance our necessary and unnecessary imports,” he said.
Ogbuokiri commended the efforts of President Bola Tinubu’s administration towards solving the nation’s economic problems while noting that non-oil exports hold the key to the nation’s Economic progress particularly with regards to intra- African trade.
He praised the collaboration between Nigeria and its neighbouring countries in fascilitating transborder trade adding that such relationship would help identify bottlenecks and proffer solutions for ease of trade.
