Nigeria Shouldn’t Spend $6bn A Year To Import Petroleum Products – Obaseki

Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki has spoken up for channelling domestic savings to development financing instruments to boost development.

The governor revealed this as chairman of the session on development financing at the induction of new and returning governors into the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) in Abuja.

He said that the N200bn investment in agriculture which helped in getting Nigeria out of recession was clear proof that we need to deploy development financing to rejuvenate the Nigerian economy.

His words, “The Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund, which we are investors as governors, has leveraged N5bn that we have given them to drive development in this country. It would make sense for us to take much of our domestic savings into our Sovereign Wealth Fund so that we can leverage more investment in our various states. The Central Bank, the Sovereign Wealth Fund and other development institutions have done well in the area of agriculture.”

“With N200bn, we have been able to invest in agriculture and move the country out of recession. Does it not make more sense for us to commit more of our resources to develop our states,”

“Why should we be spending $6bn a year importing petroleum products. Does it not make more sense to use some of that money for development financing that would affect more Nigerians? The task is for us, the class of 2019, to make the case to get more funding available to development financing institutions so that we, in turn, can get financing to drive projects in our states.”