Under-development: North-East Govs, Leaders Under Fire

BY COBHAM NSA, KANO – The nonchalance and lack of political will by the Governors and leaders of Nigeria’s North-East region are seriously hampering efforts at re-building the zone for sustainable socio-economic growth and development.

This is amidst emerging concerns that the apathy and half-hearted stance of these leaders are also capable of jeopardizing efforts by the newly-born North-East Development Commission (NEDC) to meet public expectations of remedying the long years of neglect and under-development in the region.

Expressing these views at the annual Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) workshop for Business Editors and Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) in Kano on Thursday, the participants however believe effective collaboration among stakeholders is required to achieve the region’s recovery and re-development in a record time.

Additionally, the participants said there should be conscious moves by stakeholders to ensure peace fully returns to the North-East with existing risk factors successfully addressed towards stimulating investments’ proliferation in the area.

They however urged political leaders and other stakeholders to deliberately engage and sensitise their people on meaningful investments and exploitation of the Zone’s huge economic potential. 

Further amplifying this position, Managing Director of NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim and Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Senator Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim, agreed that except the North East leaders properly sensitized themselves and live up to their responsibilities, it would be difficult to reconstruct and develop the region.

According to Alhaji Ibrahim, the leaders’ role is critical in driving the rebuilding process, even as he urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to create banking incentives to lure Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and Micro-Finance Banks (MFBs) to resume business in the zone.

The NDIC boss also challenged the apex bank to focus on vocational and entrepreneurial trainings for people of the region as part of efforts to address the unemployment challenges currently ravaging the region.

In his intervention, Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Senator Ibrahim urged CBN to incentivize DMBs and MFBs towards re-opening or establishing more branches in the North East for the people’s easy access to financing.

Senator Ibrahim however said the governors and leaders of the region must show commitment to security and be ready to make the required sacrifices to attract thriving investments into the region  

For the Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Insurance and Actuarial Matters, Hon Olufemi Fakeye, education remains pivotal in driving the region’s re-building process, stressing that in educating the populace on the need for peace to reign in the region, the well-to-do citizens from the North-east must also be sensitize on the need to invest in their region for the overall good of their people and the region.

Speaking on ‘Re-building financial infrastructure in the North East’ CBN’s Director Development Finance, Dr. A. Olaitan, expressed concern over the state governments’ poor participation and low level access to the apex bank’s funding interventions in the region.

Represented by Mr Sani Mohammed, Deputy Director in the Department, Mr Olaitan said of the N28 billion CBN’s sectoral funding interventions, especially in SMEs, between 2001 and 2008, no state in the region came forward with bankable proposals to participate and access the apex banks’ financing.

The CBN director also said the North-east’s involvement in the commercial agricultural scheme intervention was pathetic as most states in the region, except in Taraba and Gombe with one project each, can boast of any significant investments in the scheme.

Insisting that there is an urgent need for the region to do something about its poor interventions’ profile in productive ventures, Mohammad said the states must recalibrate and shun their hitherto unwillingness to fulfill conditions set for participation and intervention in the Anchor Borrowers Programme or Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) projects’ financing

On restrain by telecommunication companies to engage in mobile banking, Mohammed said that being foreign firms, they have continued to shun the sector because of the huge risk involved.