Ministerial nominee from Abia State, Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah, has said that industrialisation of the rural areas is a panacea for Nigeria getting out of its economic problem.
Dr. Ogah, who also advocated building critical infrastructure and agriculture to leapfrog into a dominant economy, was answering questions posed to him during ministerial screening on the floor of the Senate.
He said that if the country must move forward it has to improve her critical infrastructure, which is the only the only way it can create jobs. “We do not need to also concentrate our industries in the urban areas; we need to create industries in the rural areas. We cannot put our economy purely on oil. Yes, agreed that oil is a cash cow but we can develop our agriculture,” Ogah said.
According to him, the nation has the capacity to feed the whole world; its economy is about N43 trillion and the private sector is expected to drive the nation’s economy.
On deregulation, Ogah said the country needed a guided deregulation where everything is not dumped on the economy. He also insisted that the current value of the naira was okay.
Responding to a question on the state of refineries and what he intends to do to solve the problem, Ogah said the refineries must be made to work. “Nigeria remains the country depending on refinery products. We need more funds to be injected into making the refineries work.