Vice Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Kashim Shettima has identified economic diversification as a tool for growth and one of the ways to manage the pressure on the naira, especially in light of falling crude revenue.
He said this at the 62nd NBA Conference held in Lagos on Monday where he represented Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the APC.
According to Senator Shettima, a diversification of the country’s revenue base, notably through export growth and greater local productivity, would ease the pressure on the naira, curb inflation, and ensure job creation at a rate in tandem with population growth and youth entry into the jobs market.
He said “an important tool of growing the economy is the diversification of our sources of income.”
“Ours is a great nation in chains. Chained by ineptitude, corruption, and lack of capacity.”
Relating economic growth to social stability, he emphasized the vital importance of creating avenues of creative expression for the youth population and steady income opportunities to achieve the underlying objective of a prosperous and safe country.
Other presidential candidates present at the event included Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Each took turns to highlight their plans for managing the economy, with Atiku urging a “convergence of the official and unofficial rates”.
Meanwhile, Peter Obi repeated his “consumption to production” agenda despite growing criticism that the message lacks clarity and the candidate is himself one of the largest contributors to consumption in the country, considering his reported large imports of foreign-produced items including alcohol and household goods.