Nasarawa state was created on 1st October 1996, out of neighboring
Plateau state. Located in the North-Central region of Nigeria, bordered
to the West by the Federal Capital Territory, the North by Kaduna, the
South by Benue an
d Kogi, and to the East by Plateau and Taraba states.
The State is nicknamed “Home of Solid Minerals” because of its huge
deposits of mineral resources.
The creation of the State was
indeed, a significant development for its diverse citizens. This is
because it brought together people who shared common aspirations and had
co-existed peacefully for decades, even though with pockets of tribal
and natural resources conflicts here and there which are also
characteristic of developing democracy.
The desire for
self-determination, sustainable development, economic empowerment and
social cohesion were the stimulus that impelled our founding fathers to
struggle and tussle for the creation of the State.
According to
the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD 2019 World
Investment Report, Nigeria is the third host economy for Foreign Direct
Investment FDI in Africa, behind Egypt and Ethiopia. Both World Bank
‘Ease of Doing Business’ and UNCTAD recent reports revealed that – the
investment climate in Nigeria is improving generally.
At
sub-national level, as reported in the Guardian Newspaper of 28th,
February 2020, the Nasarawa State Coalition of Business Professionals
Association (NACOBPA) has lamented the poor business climate that has
crippled small and medium scale businesses in the state.
Presenting the factors that have crippled businesses in the state,
Chairman of NACOBPA, Mrs. Joanna Bello listed them to include insecurity
of lives and business property, as well as poor access to funding for
micro and medium scale enterprises, poor access to business premises,
lack of street numbering and addresses and absence commodities
processing centre/industrial layouts and multiple-taxation on small
businesses in the state, as a major huddle that the state and Federal
Government must surmount.
In Nasarawa State, several of its
untapped resources now offer very good potentials for economically
viable and technically feasible industrial and agricultural development
projects. It has a wide range of solid minerals and a variety of crops
produced within the state.
There is need for Nasarawa State
Government to provide smart, not overly burdensome regulation and a
stable regulatory environment, as well as guarantee the rule of law and a
level playing field for investors. The state needs to do to improve
state’s policies in relation to transiting to digital economy, building
more business hubs and leveraging on the Abuja-Karu investment corridor.
With thousands of unemployed youth, a rise in numbers of functional
industries and productivity is required to maintain growth and guarantee
development and sustainability, it’s worth noting that innovation
requires investment in human capital and is high time for Nasarawa state
to develop costed, state-specific human capital development plan.
Moving forward, Nasarawa state government need to strengthen financing
strategies for state development; Improve the state investment climate
and local markets; Attract investors and access capital markets;
Identify sectors where private sector solutions can create or expand
markets.
The state government need to lead by example to have
investment that will stimulate the economics of Nasarawa state, I think
there is need to have a project that will create massive employment and
increase the internally generated revenues for the state.
One of
such projects is what I refer to as ‘Nasarawa Agro Trade Centre’ NATC,
just like Kano Agro Trade Center in Dawanau, Dubai World Trade Center
and Korea Agro Trade Center in Huntington Beach, CA, which is a
public-private company categorized under Wholesale Grocers.
Governor A.A. Sule should consider constructing the Nasarawa Agro Trade
Centre’ NATC in Lafia, for comparative advantage of being the state
capital with other supportive institutions in place that would stimulate
the take-off of the trade Centre.
In Practice, the Nasarawa Agro
Trade Center I’m suggesting here will be cluster of markets where
different types of agricultural product are sold. The agro-based cluster
is simply a concentration of producers, agribusinesses and institutions
that are engaged in the same or different agricultural or
agro-industrial subsector, interconnect and build value networks in
addressing common challenges and pursuing common opportunities.
A
recent research shows that clustering markets of the agricultural
products presents many benefits, such as creating an enabling
environment for inter-firm cooperation, facilitating the diffusion of
innovations, and acting as a means of massive revenues generation to
government and at the other hand creating employment.
In a layman
sense, the trade Centre will be one stop mega market located in Lafia
for all agricultural product produced in Nasarawa and the neighboring
state, every product with its section, and in the market, there will be
with police station, banks, hospital, hotels and parking space for over
150 lorries and other necessary modern facilities.
Just imagine
the number of youths that would be engaged in keeping the market clean,
the number of youths that would serve as local security in the markets,
and the window of opportunities the Centre will open for local and
international investors.
Equally, important is that agricultural
activities should be made attractive to encourage more youths,
especially in rural areas, to take part in it rather than continuously
drifting to urban areas where jobs are becoming even scarcer.
This could be done through the provision of soft loans, facilities to
enhance mechanized farming, building of more silos to minimize produce
wastage, provision of irrigation facilities as well as improved seeds.
Good roads for the transportation of farm produce should also be
provided.
As a development practitioner and a student of Dudley
Seers, I strongly believe that development should be a drastic reduction
in the level of poverty, unemployment and inequality over a period of
time.
Therefore, Nasarawans need a project that will bring food
to their table quickly – and that is just the bottom line. I think there
are so many low ‘hanging fruits’ that will give current administration a
quick win.
Improving the business regulatory environment across
the state such as land administration process through a robust
geographic information system; getting electricity for business owners;
paying taxes; getting credit; technical support for starting business,
and employing workers - will be key for the state’s economic growth.
State’s heavy dependence on ‘Abuja-Monthly-Oil-Give-Away’ has posed a
huge challenges that have made it difficult to achieve sustained growth,
create jobs and reduce poverty in Nasarawa state. We need to move
on….but we also need to carefully study the MAM’s SWOT Analysis below...
Murtala Adogi Mohammed
mamurtala@gmail.com
011020
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