government and local government level
in Nigeria is almost non-existent.
In higher- income economies, states,
regions or provinces are actively
involved in growing their own local
economies and compete for Foreign
Direct Investment, export and internal
market share.
Ironically, those states that have taken
an active role in supporting productive
and export sectors have reaped the
benefits. It is impossible to truly
develop non-oil sectors in Nigeria
without the effective involvement of
state and local governments.
Every state in Nigeria has a ministry of
commerce (or its equivalent). These
ministries ideally exist to complement
the efforts of the federal ministry of
trade, industry and investment at the
state level. However, this is far from
the reality.
Another impediment comes from the
local government. Majority of these
local governments don‘t even have
actual, up-to-date data on what kind of
production activity goes on within their
locality. However, they are more than
happy to hound business owners into
paying ―local government levies.‖
The government does have a lot of
ground to cover in terms of reducing
the infrastructure deficits across the
country, improving gender equality,
creating linkages to smoothen the
export value chains, enhancing
production and improving access to
financial services and quality education.
However, this cannot be left to the
Federal government alone. Efforts at
the federal level have to be
complemented at state and local
government levels to create a sort of
closed loop.
State governments cannot afford to sit
on the sidelines. On their part, local
governments on their part must find
their place in the growing non-oil
export narrative going on at the
moment.
Government
Institutions need to
focus on the basics
At some point in our nation‘s history,
government institutions (ministries,
departments and agencies) which were
set up for a specific function started
viewing themselves as revenue-
generating organizations, with emphasis
on announcing revenues collected. This
has led to a situation where agencies
that are primarily supposed to guide
the government‘s policy-making,
monitor the markets and value chains
and ensure the elimination of
bottlenecks once identified, are rather