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NEWS
New Telegraph Economic Summit
FRIday, March 18, 2016 NEW TELEGRAPH
Runsewe: Tourism can offer 75m jobs if… CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
Runsewe: Tourism can offer 75m jobs if…
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former Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Commission (NTDC), Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, said if the nation’s tourism sector is adequately developed, it could secure jobs for over 75 million people. He noted that why this had not been forthcoming over the years was because the sector had been left unexplored for quite a long time. Speaking in his paper, titled: “Our Heritage, Our Destination in a new Economy,” Runsewe said the challenges of ethnic and tribal sentiments have made the development of the sector to be retarded. Making a reference with his proposal for the development of Calabar City as a tourism city in the country, the former NTDC Director General said the suggestion was rejected by some stakeholders because of the fact that it was located in a particular region of the country. “But I must say that Dubai that we all rush to today is not the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In fact, UAE has seven states and all the seven states are now benefiting immensely from the tourism city Dubai has become,” Runsewe said. He added that the Federal Government should also put in place policies backed by regulations that will ensure that investors are made to observe the catchment area requirement for employment. Runsewe said almost all the leading hotels in the world have their branches in Nigeria, but rather give jobs to the people of their countries of origin.
L-R: Chairman, Board of Directors of Daily Telegraph Publishing Company, Alhaji Idi Farouk; member of the board, Chief Sam Nkire and Vice Chairman, Rev. Emeka Abone
Group General Manager, Sun Heaven, Dr. Michael Pinder (left) and a Director, New Telegraph, Chief Solo Akuma (SAN)
L-R: Publisher, Global Excellence, Mr. Mayor Akinpelu (left) and Country Director, Nigeria-Slovenia Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Uche Udungwo
L-R: Mr. Ikem Okuhu; Nasir Rahman of UBA and Esan Sunday of Dangote Group
Mr. Nathan Agbaso (left) with Chief Martin Agbaso
L-R: Sun Newspapers team: Mrs. Bolatito Adebayo, Mrs. Kate Halim and Mrs. Vivian Onyebukwa.
Kalu flays over dependence on oil
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lso speaking, the Founder of New Telegraph Newspaper and former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, said he shared the same opinion with stakeholders in the country that Nigeria’s woes were mainly attributed to overdependence on the oil and gas industry. Kalu, who was represented by the Managing Director, SLOK Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Firas Abboud, advised investors and other stakeholders to go back to olden days of embracing agriculture and other non-oil sectors of the economy. “We have not heard policies from the CBN relating to maritime industry for encouraging the industry. Before we all shift from oil and gas to agriculture and live other sectors to suffer or before we let go of the oil and gas sector, I will rather advise that CBN should raise the efficiency of the participation of Nigerian companies in the oil and gas sector. “That sector (oil and gas) has been marred with a lot of malpractices and fraud leading to capital flight out of the country. So, if we raise the efficiency in that sector and improve on trans-
parency and individual process, we can easily raise the sector that contributes almost N500 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to about N1.5 trillion to the GDP. “So, before everybody moves to agriculture and other mineral resources, let us try to raise the efficiency. All private sector wants from the CBN is policies. If the CBN wants the private sector to participate and improve on the economy, it should give them the right policies and transparency, and you will see what we can do,” he said.
had become a worrisome trend that these resources have not been effectively explored to the advantage of the economy. He identified lack of effective laws as one of the banes of mining sector, adding: “Every state in this country has solid minerals. The legal framework for exploiting solid minerals is a major problem as there appears to be loopholes in our legal system.” Ekpu urged public and private stakeholders to collaborate to reawaken the needed framework required to get our mining industry working.
Ekpu’s counsel
Uduaghan: Nigeria should develop tourism
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ommenting also, a veteran journalist, Mr. Ray Ekpu, lamented that while each state of the federation had one mineral resource or the other, it
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peaking also, Chairman of the session and former Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, said
there were so many areas within the tourism sector that could be developed to build the nation’s economy. “I live in Warri, Delta State and I can tell you that Warri is a home of comedy, a big aspect of art and tourism sector that can be developed,” Uduaghan said. Also, a discussant and President of the La Campaigne Beach Resort, Dr. Wale Akinboboye, said security should be provided to ensure that investors were encouraged to invest in the country. Speaking on the importance of tourism to Nigeria, the National Coordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, said there was no short cut to build tourism in the country without the support of government, as the private sector could not do it alone. He said tourism had a lot
of advantages to the nation’s economy and, therefore, urged state governments to invest in tourism by promoting the various festivals and tourist sites in their states. He attributed security challenges in the country as major impediment to tourism in Nigeria and, therefore, urged government to tackle the security challenges in the country to improve revenue from tourism.
Stakeholders decry lack of information on agric devt
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t the summit, stakeholders in the nation’s agriculture sector expressed worries over lack of inadequate information on agriculture development in the country. They said that there should be knowledge revolution in agricul-