#CRSLeadership Goals is a column by Wofai Ewa focused on the #CRSConversation. It is aimed at improving social consciousness.
ECONOMY
In 2017, the Cross River State economy produced a Gross State Product (GSP) of around N890 Billion, forming 0.78% of Nigeria’s GDP, with CRS ranking as the 24th largest economy in Nigeria, 12th in Southern Nigeria and 6th in the South-South Geopolitical Zone. This had services, oil, agriculture and the non-oil industries respectively accounting for 54%, 23%, 13% and 10% of the CRS economy.
Today, CRS still desperately depends heavily on the Nigerian mono-economy, where hydrocarbons account for about 8% of Nigeria’s GDP, with the oil industry employing only about 0.03% of Nigeria’s 80 million labor force. With the renewed drive towards the diversification of the Nigerian economy, CRS must reconsider this dependency and look to drastically revamp the local economy.
A few ways, amongst others, we could get this done, are as briefly presented as
follows:
- Steady and improved financing of MSMEs – Emerging economies now have MSMEs contributing between 70% to 95% of all new employment opportunities.
Through State regulatory incentives and private sector partnerships, CRS could be looking to facilitate ease of access to single-digit interest financing, with reasonable tenures. A good start would be statutorily raising counterpart funding and seeking more active and closely-knit collaborations with the likes of the Calabar-based Central Bank’s South-South Entrepreneurship Development Center (CBN-SSEDC), the Bank of Industry (BOI), the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), the Nigerian Export Import (NEXIM) Bank, amongst others.
- Improved Technology-driven tax collection: With the deployment of relevant technology and the re-engineering and simplification of the tax remittance process, remittance compliance could be boosted and tax collection greatly improved. The digitalisation of tax administration assures a win-win situation for both the paying individual/organization and the collecting government, and according to the World Bank, lessons from the coronavirus pandemic mean that CRS must improve her digital agility, as economies with strong underlying information technology infrastructure are more resilient, hence a resilient tax system favors all parties within the tax system.
- Improved investments in services and non-oil sectors: With the Nigerian population estimated to hit 250 million by 2030, proper, adequate and credible investments in the non-oil sectors could truly place our population as an ‘asset’, similar to China and India, rather than the liability our population currently poses. CRS would be best served and well placed within the Nigerian State, by investing in the redevelopment of key existing critical infrastructure, revamping of the manufacturing and production sectors, and technology-based strengthening of the services sector (ICT, Real Estate, Financial, Medical, Education, Hospitality, etc.). This is extremely necessary, especially considering the potential of the already 1-year old African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which hopes to turn producing entities into income generating hubs, and non-producing entities into dumping grounds.
- Explore Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) for exploitation of natural resources:
Without attempting to remind Cross Riverians about the untapped riches beneath the earth, this is an area of great promise, with sustained ‘credible’ pursuits of foreign direct investments. Amongst several other untapped riches, we have significant basalt deposits in Ikom Local Government, capable of massively aiding the growth of the world’s largest ecosystem, the construction industry. With the steady rise in the cost of building/construction materials, focused attempts at facilitating the mining and production of basalt products in CRS, could be significant for the Nigerian construction industry, a great income earner in the coming ‘uncertain’ years. This is not forgetting the now desperate need to find and develop simpatico relationships towards unearthing the next Lafarge, Wilmar, etc.
The economy of Cross River State has been absolutely nowhere near its best, despite the huge potentials therein. By considering basic developmental steps, through focused and credible leadership, Cross River is poised to experience an upturn in fortunes and an upsurge in relevant economic indices.
Staying focused on the #CRSConversation, let the discussions continue.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Wofai Ewa and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.