Farouk Gumel - A case for why oil should not be Nigeria’s No.1 Focus

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Farouk Gumel- Oil was discovered in Nigeria in
the 1950s and today, Nigeria is the
eleventh-largest oil-producer in the world and
Africas main oil producer. In 1977, the Nigerian
National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was founded to
participate and regulate the countrys oil
sector. Since then, significant progress has been
made in terms of increasing production, revenues,
and consumption. We must thank NNPC for Nigerias
dominance in Africa when it comes to oil
production. This dominance however came with its
downsides. As a nation, Nigeria became over
reliant, or one could even say addicted, to oil
revenues.
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From the 1970s, we convinced ourselves that
Nigeria is rich. And maybe we are. But the
reality is poverty has always been around growing
side by side with our oil production and the
apparent wealth. This is because as oil brings
revenues to a nation, it does not create jobs in
a nation. According to the International Labour
Organisation (ILO), the petroleum industry
directly employs 6 million people.This is less
than 1 of the global labour force.
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Today, the 13 countries that make up the
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) have a combined population of
approximately 500 million people. Nigeria
accounts for 208 million or 40 of this
population.So clearly, we are an outlier and we
must consider this as we plan for our future.
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Although Nigeria, as a country, has been
adversely impacted by the decline in oil prices,
it remains a going concern and has been able to
meet most of its international and domestic
obligations. The country has, in recent years,
aggressively pushed to move away from reliance on
oil. We simply have no choice especially as the
oil sector only brings revenues, it does not
create massive jobs! According to the ILO in
2005, the Nigerian oil industry employs less than
315,000 people (direct and indirect).
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Farouk Gumel, the Group Executive Director said
Nigeria looks to the agriculture sector to
decrease oil dependency. He adds that
agriculture recorded a steady growth even during
the countrys recent recession. It is becoming
the largest Economic sector in Nigeria and this
is helping to improve Nigerias GDP.Furthermore,
agriculture is the only sector that has the
potential to create massive jobs. In a recent
interview Farouk gumel added,Nigeria hopes
strong fiscal and monetary policies will further
encourage additional investments in the
agricultural sector.
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Farouk Gumel said TGI Group is already investing
millions of dollars in out grower farming
programs for rice paddy, soya beans and maize in
Nigeria. These programs supply raw materials to
TGIs rice mill, multi seed oil crushing
facilities and poultry farms. He added. TGI also
gives guaranteed offtake agreement to the
farmers. These offtake agreements enable the
farmers to borrow funds for the enhancement and
expansion of their operations. He concludes that
Agriculture is the key to inclusive and
sustainable economic growth thereby leading to
long term peace and prosperity.
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