HOPE RISES ON ECONOMY AS FOCUS SHIFTS TO NON-OIL SECTOR 
 

Faced with dwindling fortunes from the world crude oil export market, a geometrically rising import bill- now over $40 billion from $5.8 billion figures of 1999, and a sharp fall in Manufacturing Competitiveness world ranking, to  about 4.6 percent, from the 8.4 per cent level of the 80s, several efforts in recent times, aimed at diversifying the nation’s economy, have shifted to discovering alternative sources of revenue for the country with focus bearing on the revitalization of the nation’s industrial sector. The Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), blazing a trail in this vein, recently organized a series of workshops aimed at refocusing attention towards the development of the nation’s abundant local agro-industrial raw materials resources potentials.  

The two Workshops, held at two separate venues: Lugard House, Lokoja, Kogi state, and the RMRDC House, Lekki, Lagos State, respectively, earlier this year, both drew attention to the infinite investment opportunities possible in the nation’s agricultural raw materials such as cashew, cassava, Palm fruits and Sesame Seeds on one hand, and Allanblackia, Sheanut, and Baobab trees on the other.  

Speaking at the workshop tagged RMRDC, Kogi State Foundation and Entrepreneurship Development Workshop hosted in collaboration with the Kogi Foundation, a non-governmental capacity building body, in Lokoja, the Director General of the Council, Engr. (Prof.) Peter Onwualu, stressed the need to diversify the nation’s economy. He stated that the country would gain greatly by investing in the development of the non-oil sector of the economy to generate additional foreign exchange revenue. This, he noted was achievable by harnessing the abundant agro-forestry raw materials in the country to boost the industrial sector of the economy thereby creating employment opportunities both in urban and rural areas of the country. 

During the one-day workshop on Utilization of Allanblackia, Baobab and Sheanut Trees held at the RMRDC Building, Lekki, Lagos, Prof Onwualu also noted the need to bring the national focus to bear on the development of the non-timber forestry products, such as oil and fat from fruits and seeds of tree crops like Allanblackia, Baobab and Sheanut trees which abound in Nigeria as veritable sources of foreign exchange even as he said that the Council had perfected a simple technology for extracting sheabutter to replace the laborious indigenous technology currently in practice in Nigeria. 

Commenting further, the RMRDC DG stated that Unilever had equally identified the oil from Allanblackia tree as capable of substituting palm oil in the production of soap and margarine. He said R&D findings had proved products from Allanblackia to be superior to those from palm oil even as he informed the forum of the emergence of certain products developed in Europe from Baobab tree ranging from powdered pulp, seed oil, insecticides, etc. 

The DG also gave the Council’s commitment to supporting policy recommendations that would promote investment in the development of the nation’s abundant raw materials for future generation. 

Chief Kaoli Olusanya, Hon. Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, who attended the event in Lagos as Special Guest of Honour, in the same vein, described the seminar as a process which could be harnessed to unlock the potentials of valuable trees in the country for sustainable economic growth. The Chairman of the National Association of Small Scale Industries, NASSI, Lagos branch, Mr. Duro Kuteyi, who presided over the seminar, also used the opportunity to commend the Council for organizing the workshop which he saw was an opportunity for stakeholders in the industry to deliberate on issues germain to the revitalization of the economy. 

Chief Olusanya, earlier in his contributions, also saw the forum as a demonstration of government’s commitment towards the industrial development of the country through the establishment of Small and Medium Scale enterprises, even as he noted the attempt by organizers of the forum to actualize the values of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) programmes of the United Nations. 

The forum in Lagos attracted the participation of a cross-section of members of the organised private sector and members of the public.  It also featured the delivery of several key position papers on the Ecology, Propagation and Utilization of Allanblackia floribunda in Nigeria, as delivered by Mr. P. O. Anegbe of the World Agroforestry Center; Economic Potential of Baobab Fruits as Industrial Raw Material in Nigeria, by Alh. Gbolahan A. Solabi, Executive Director /CEO, Rambigas Nig., Ltd., among others. 

The DG, in Lokoja, on the other hand, used the forum to also visit the Executive Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Eedris Ahmed, to discuss the prospects of a cashew nut processing plant in the state as part of the proactive measures being taking by the Council to diversify the economy and to build entrepreneurial capacity within the grassroots level for local resources investment.