A renowned economist, Mr Aliyu Yusha’u has called on the newly created Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and Public Private Partnership Secretariat in the FCT Administration to evolve new ways towards revamping internal generated revenue, and reducing costs of governance.
The economist who spoke on telephone interview said, the Secretariat has a herculean task of galvanising all stakeholders to identify areas where sustainable investment could be made to scale up revenue generation.
He noted that the dwindling government revenue requires a high wired solution that can help in the sustenance of revenue generation for the administration to carry-out her responsibilities of providing services to the residents of FCT amidst increase in cost of governance.
Mr Yusha’u stated that the cost of governance is occasioned by the geometric increase in the influx of people from other parts of the country into the FCT thereby making it one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
According to him, the Secretariat has to prioritise the transportation system in FCT by working hard to attract investors that can standardise it and make it efficient and profitable.
He also explained that several opportunities for agricultural value chains that can be exploited exist for the Secretariat to take advantage of.
While he said that if the administration wants to reduce cost of governance, there was need to provide world class infrastructural development, which both working and non-working classes of residents can leverage to build economic capacity.
“In my own opinion, unless we coordinate economic activities, there is no way we can profer solutions to our budgetary deficiencies, so therefore the creation of that Secretariat is a welcome development.
“First of all, there is need to identify areas of where the Public will capacity and interests, these two things must be put into cognizance.
“Then create an awareness and go ahead to institutionalise the body that can coordinate investors within the city, Nigeria and outside the country. You also have to look at the challenges of the city, identify the basic challenges of the city.
“One of the basic challenges in FCT, is deficient transportation system, the residents, especially those at the suburb depends on transportation system.
“The new Secretariat has to find a way to make the transport system standard and look for investors both within and outside Nigeria”, he said.
Dominica Nwabufo
