INDUSTRIALIST IDENTIFIES MAJOR PILLAR FOR ECONOMY TRANSFORMATION

An industrialist in the country, Dr. Simon Okolo, has pointed to constant electricity supply and a thriving real sector as the major pillar for transformation of the economy. The real sector comprises manufacturing, agriculture and the solid mineral industry.

Dr Okolo expressed this view while answering questions from the media, recently, at a public forum.

'Nigeria's strive of being one of the 20 most developed economies in the world by the year 2020 will never come true without adequate electric power supply and a vibrant productive sector,' he said.

'An increased electric power output will usher in increased investment, productivity and job creation and this will cut down our high unemployment rate and give succor to the people.

'Without adequate electric power supply, government efforts at job creation, poverty eradication and economic boom may remain a pipe-dream.'

He lamented the crippling effects of poor power supply to Nigeria's manufacturing sector, saying ' capacity utilisation has continually plunged to below 30 per cent .

He maintained that before the economy can pick up again manufacturing and agriculture and other productive sectors of the economy must be revived through adequate incentives to investors and sustained policy.

'The public sector does not create jobs, it is the private sector that do, and what Nigeria has lacked all along has been a leadership that will have the vision and direction to engender a private sector led economic boom by creating the enabling environment for the growth of the sector,' he said.