• Bayelsa supports efforts to improve non-oil revenues

From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

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President Muhammadu Buhari has restate the determination of the Federal G to support investments in the Niger Delta region.
Buhari stated this at the weekend in his goodwill message to the Nigeria Agip Oil Company and Green River Project NAOC/GRP 20th Farmers Day celebration at the Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha Memorial Banquet Hall Ground, Yenagoa.
In the digital goodwill message, which was played, Buhari noted that Agip’s encouragement of investments in agriculture through the Green River Project mirrors efforts of the administration to stimulate the economy through massive investments in agriculture for food security.
He disclosed that the efforts put in by his administration has started to yield fruits as the country has continued to witness bountiful harvest, that would ensure the food worries of Nigerians become a thing of the past.
He commended Agip for supporting the procurement of processing facilities like cassava, rice and oil palm mill for beneficiaries as part of its Green River Project.
The president urged other oil companies to emulate Agip and shift attention to help grow the economy through investments in agriculture.
In a related development, Bayelsa State Government has described the ongoing nationwide monitoring exercise embarked upon by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to ascertain sources of revenues accruable from the non-oil sector to the Federation Account as a step in the right direction.
Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah (retd) made the commendation shortly after a team empaneled by the commission visited him at the Government House, Yenagoa.
Jonah, who urged the team to do a thorough job, expressed optimism that the exercise, if properly conducted, would open new vista of opportunities to state governments to discover and harness alternative sources of revenues.
He said the current economic recession was worsened by the long period of over-dependence on revenues accruing from oil sector and lack of political will to explore and exploit other natural endowments.
The deputy governor, who assured the team of the state’s support, urged them to engage the appropriate government ministries, agencies and departments, as well as other stakeholders in the course of the exercise, with a view to identifying alternative potentialities of the state and possible means to harnessing such resources, in line with the current administration’s policy of economic diversification.
His words: “Yes, it is true that Bayelsa State isn’t doing well in the non-oil sector. So, they (RMAFC) are going to carry out an audit of what we have because some of the non-oil mineral resources they have in mind may be here and we may not be aware.
“At the federal level, the government is trying to get a consultant to work it out for the entire country.
“I’m firmly of the belief that there is no land in Nigeria that has no minerals. It depends on how you maximise the exploitation of it. So, at the end of this exercise, this team will tell us what we have and how we can get it out from the soil. Just like the Federal Government, we also have interest in taxes. We have common interest, so we will certainly benefit from the exercise. But the extent of benefit is what I will not be able to define now.
Earlier, the team leader, Mr. Sanyon Omiri, pointed out that, non-oil sector accounts for over 50 percent of revenues accruing to the Federation Account, since the beginning of the current economic recession and is expected to contribute more with the ongoing efforts of the Federal Government’s to diversify the economy.
Omiri disclosed that Bayelsa got N1.2 million as its share of 13 percent derivation from the non-oil sector, stressing that, the state currently occupies 36th position on the table of non-oil remittance to the Federation Account, as at June.