LAMIDO SANUSI
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, has said that concrete steps must be taken to protect local industries against unfavourable competition with foreign firms.
This, according to him, is necessary if the country is to realise the dream of reviving ailing local industries and create more employment opportunities.
Sanusi said this while delivering a lecture titled; ”Recent Developments in the Financial Sector of the Nigerian Economy,” at the 2010 annual dinner of the Banking and Finance Trade Group of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture in Kaduna on Saturday.
The CBN governor said that unfavourable competition brought about by the World Trade Organisation’s treaty constituted serious threat to the survival of the nation’s industry, adding that “no country in the world can survive industrially with such an unfavourable competition.
He said, “I have been having this argument with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in New York that we cannot accept such an unfavourable competition. In those days, the British protected their markets with gun boats. Today, everybody, including the World Bank and IMF, is using Malaysia as a model, but their leader was vilified when he refused to accept such conditions in those days.”
The CBN boss who, also canvassed trade protection with a view to nurturing and protecting Nigeria’s weak industrial base from unfavourable and unhealthy competition, stressed that the protection of industries and the agriculture sector was far beyond the imposition of tariffs and subsidies.
He described the availability of critical infrastructure as being important to the survival and growth of any economy.
Sanusi argued that African countries in general, and Nigeria in particular, must learn from the experience of the Asian countries, which took their destinies in their own hands when the chips were down, and were today major players in the world economy.
“It is funny that in Nigeria, we export what we don’t have. Nigeria is exporting power to Niger Republic, and yet, we don’t have electricity to power our industries and power is critical to every sector of the economy, Sanusi added.
Source:http://www.punchng.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment