Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
A US-based NGO, Winrock International, has decried the dependence of Nigerian economy on the oil and gas sector, pointing it out as being responsible for the country’s poor economy.
Director of the organization Prof. Jeffrey Wood, who spoke at the closing of a three-day training programme organized by the NGO for selected tertiary institutions in Nigeria, said over dependence on oil is gradually killing the nation’s economy.
For the country’s economy to grow, Prof Wood advised the federal government to pay proper attention to the agricultural sector, which he said has the potential to grow the nation’s economy.
Wood, a US-based agricultural expert informed that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will fund any agricultural project embarked upon by Nigerian government.
He also encouraged private individuals to go into farming, just as he called on government to diversify the Nigerian economy and develop the country’s agriculture potential.
He noted that crude oil, which is the main source of the country’s revenue, may no longer be reliable, hence the need to develop agriculture, stressing that many advanced countries of the world have developed agriculture to a level that it has become the base of their economy.
Prof. Wood noted that the country is blessed with fertile land that can grow both arable and cash crops, as he called on Nigerians to make the best of the land and fertile vegetation.
He advised the government to tap into the natural resources in the country to develop the economy.
Participants at the training programme, who were drawn from Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo and Osun states, expressed the need for the government to develop the agriculture sector through training and retraining of agricultural teachers at all levels of education.