Conference of Northern States Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture holds an investment summit to chart a new course for the development of the North

The Northern part of Nigeria is set to turn around its backwardness and in its stead position the region for economic prosperity.  The region on Monday, October 6, held its first Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit in Abuja. The summit afforded leaders from the region the opportunity to proffer solutions to problems militating against its development.

 The summit, which was organised by Conference of Northern States Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, CONSCCIMA, had Shaukat Aziz, former prime minister of Pakistan, telling the participants what is needed to be done to improve the life of the people.

In a keynote address at the opening ceremony, Aziz said that for the region to move out of the shackles of its present state of backwardness, it must embrace an integrated rural development strategy and shift away from subsistence farming to a value-added agricultural system.

Ironically, most of the governors of the region who are responsible for implementation of the resolutions of the summit were absent at the opening ceremony.  Out of the 19 governors in the region, only Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State and Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi of Zamfara were present.

President Umaru Yar’ Adua, who was represented by Charles Ugwuh, minister of commerce and industry, decried the overdependence of the states in the region on revenue from the federation account for survival. The president noted that despite some successes achieved in terms of political stability and economic growth, the high level of poverty in most parts of the country, especially in the North was embarrassing.

“Infact, in most of the northern states, the poverty level is very high.  In some of these states, there is equally a high level of unemployment , a near-total collapse of infrastructure, virtual absence of new investments, while practically all the states depend essentially on revenue accruing to the federation account,” the president said.

In his address at the occasion, Yuguda blamed the lack of investment in the North to lack of peace and stability in the region occasioned by incessant religious riots.  He said “the northern region is ready to develop and that the finance to invest in infrastructure is available.” He admitted that 95 percent of the poverty in Nigeria occurred in the North, adding that the problem was precarious and needed quick and urgent attention. “Poverty level is reflected in most states in the North,” he said.

He said “this time around, the North is determined and ready to move the region forward and this will be done through reviving agriculture and encouraging microfinance institutions. We are obviously ready and we are ready as a result of necessity. There is a compelling need for us to do it because the North is in a very precarious condition. The apparent disaster that would befall the North if we don’t take the positive and the right step to develop it would be disastrous.”

The governor went on: “Any resolution taken at the summit would be implemented; it would not be left and thrown away after the discussion. This time around, we mean business and we are ready to act. We are going to identify potential investors and encourage them. You are talking about money, there is money all over. If you make the atmosphere conducive for investors to operate, they will come in. At our level, we would make the environment investment friendly,” he said.

But corruption could drive away investors who might want to invest in the region. At the summit, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, ICPC, said it had uncovered financial misappropriation in the utilisation of funds meant for the Universal Basic Education Programme and award of road contracts across Nigeria.

Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, chairman of ICPC, who stated this during a paper presentation, said it was not news that funds allocated for the improvement of the socio-economic condition of the citizens are either being embezzled by corrupt public officers or wasted through lack of monitoring and poor implementation of government contracts.

He said the ICPC has direct evidence of this in the organisation’s study of utilisation of the fund allocated for the Universal Basic Education Programme. He said: “Our ongoing study of road contracts has also indicated that the same may have manifested in that sector as well.”

The ICPC boss was alarmed that in Nigeria, “there is hardly any centralised register of public contracts that could be inspected at any given time to ascertain the level of their execution and under which fiscal budget  they were awarded.”