A retired Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Chris Nemedia, on Monday urged the Federal Government to be less-dependent on crude oil.
Nemedia, who made the plea in an interview with newsmen in Lagos, said that processed commodities were more profitable to trade in than raw materials.
“Emphasis should be on adding value to the primary commodities like oil before exporting them in order to get the desired yield like other nations from natural resources.
“A major achievement of this government will be to make us belong to the league of countries that trade in manufactured products.
“By now, we ought to have improved on the processing and refining of our crude oil,” the former CBN director said.
According to Nemedia, there has been steady decline in commodity prices internationally in the last one year and the decline had been to the detriment of economies that relied solely on exporting the commodities in their crude state.
“President Buhari needs to emphasise the establishment of processing plants by partnering with the private sector.
“Former developing economies that have moved to a more advanced stage went the way of industrialisation and manufacturing to change their fortunes,” he said.
“We have the population to sustain the consumption of locally-manufactured goods to our benefit,” he said.
