|
 Daily
Independent Online.
* Friday, July 02, 2004.
Obasanjo urges OPS to adopt
NEPAD
•Warns banks on interest rates
By ‘Gbenga
Abiodun
State House, Abuja
President Olusegun
Obasanjo has urged the Organised Private Sector (OPS) in the country to
take advantage of the opportunities available in the New Partnership for
African Development (NEPAD) for the overall national growth and development.
He also again warned commercial
banks against the continued practice of charging practice interest rates
from would-be borrowers even as he dismissed insinuations making the
rounds that government is set to privatise the Federal Mortgage Bank, FMB.
Obasanjo said, at the
inauguration of the NEPAD Business Group Nigeria Chapter (NBG-Nigeria) at
the State House, that though NEPAD was a continental programme, his
efforts in incubating and hatching it along with the two other prominent
African leaders involved would be a waste if Nigerian businessmen could
not translate the laudable ideas contained in the package into national
benefit.
While stressing that the
private sector was the “engine for the realisation of the goals of
NEPAD,” the president disclosed that NEPAD substantially relied on the
doctrine of partnership in every sense for its implementation.
The President, who is also the
Chairman of the Heads of State Implementation committee of NEPAD, also
reminded the Nigerian captains of industries in attendance that
government’s National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy
(NEEDS) must be made to work.
According to him, it is for
this reason that the administration’s policy of deregulation and
privatisation was being ‘fast tracked.”
“It is therefore imperative
that the NBG - Nigeria be seen to be promotion, reform in the existing
financial and capital markets through capacity development and effective
networking,” the president reiterated while urging the Nigerian
businessmen to show active interest in the activities of the recently
crated African Capital Market Forum (ACMF) made up of 22 stock exchanges
on the continent
He also emphasised that NEPAD
was a holistic package “aimed at restoring peace and security, promoting
good governance, eradicating poverty and uplifting the living standards
of the African people”.
In his remarks, Chairman NEPAD
Business Group, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, said the group was ready to provide
practical support and resources to help achieve the NEPAD vision in
Nigeria while Mr. Goodie Ibru, who heads the Nigerian business group
added that his group would live up to expectation noting that peace on
the continent depended on putting the economies of Nigeria and African
countries eminent industrialists, businessmen and women and top bank
executives attended the inauguration.
The
President who also received the report of the presidential technical
committee on housing and urban development led by the Chairman, Prof. Akin
Mabogunje at the State House, also added if the banks refrain from
uncooperative stance, funds would be available to help push the
administration’s efforts at providing cheap housing for all categories of
Nigerians.
Obasanjo, who decried the
practice whereby commercial banks are securing government funds at cheap
rates, which they are lending back to government and the economy at
exorbitant rates said, “We can’t go on like this.”
While
assuring the committee that the rumours of the privatisation of the
Federal Mortgage Bank, FMB, were false, he added that development banks
in the country namely; FMB, Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural
Development Bank and the Bank of Industry would not be privatised.
He, however, disclosed that
they would be commercialised as he made haste to commend the technical
committee for doing a splendidly job on the report.
“We feel proud of you and what
you have helped us to achieve in the housing sector,” Obasanjo said.
Earlier, Akin Mabogunje, had in
his remarks advised government not to privatise the mortgage bank, as it
would need it to guarantee success of the Federal Housing Fund from
contributors and the capital market.
He added that the
administration’s positive action in the housing, sector has already
created confidence necessary for previously threatened withdrawals from
the federal housing fund by the Nigerian Labour Congress, some state
governments and the private sector to be dropped.
|
