Insecurity, lack of power scare foreign investors – Sen. Nenadi Usman
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- Category: Inside politics
- Written by Amina Alhassan
- Hits: 1863
Senator Nenadi Usman (PDP, Kaduna South Senatorial District) spoke to Weekly Trust on what her committee on investment is doing to revive the textile and automobile industry in Nigeria. Excerpts:
Weekly Trust: As a first time Senator and a woman, what have been the challenges so far?Senator Nenadi Usman: Whether you are a male senator or female senator, you do practically the same job. The challenge for me is re-orientating myself completely as I came from the executive arm of government. So I needed a total re-orientation to adapt to the ways we are doing things in the parliament. It’s just my fist year and I believe I have settled and adjusted to all the basics to deliver the dividends of democracy to my constituency.
Talking about dividends of democracy; what do you have to show for this one year?
I wouldn’t say I have achieved so much because for everything you do there is always a room for improvement, but I have done quite a bit. For my electorate, the first thing I did was to make sure I am constantly in touch with them so that with the insecurity in the nation and the roads not being safe they don’t need to come to Abuja to look for me, I go home quite regularly, so that is first and foremost.
Second, I try to engage them in dialogue, so, most of the time, they get to know what I am doing here as I consult them a lot. The third issue is that I have been able to put the women together using the wives of the emirs and chiefs in my constituency. Incidentally I am one of them, so it is like being among my own group since I am the wife of an emir too. So the 24 wives of emirs and chiefs, we came together, brought the wives of district heads - we have 229 districts - we came together to try and work out an agricultural project for women. And I was so happy when the Federal Government came up with a new direction which the Minister of Agric is giving. So I sort of just tapped into it. I have been able to collect forms from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and we have shared them among the women and we have taken it from there.
The next thing is to look at the number of students and see what kind of scholarship I can give and to that we have designed forms and distributed them. As said I have 87 wards in my constituency, so I am trying to ensure that at least one bore hole is sank in each ward, because it will alleviate the suffering of the people going to look for water particularly women and children.
Then I am working alongside the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to train youths, boys and girls, in various trades starting from satellite dish installation, cell phones repairs, things that are in high demand because there are some trades that are more in demand than others.
As Chairman, Senate Committee on Investment, what are you doing to revive the automobile and textile industries?
The textile industry has always benefitted from the export expansion grant scheme of the Federal Government. Sometime back, we called the Ministers of Finance and Trade and Investment, Comptroller-General of Customs and then the textile manufacturers and cotton producers together. We reached a very amicable decision that the scheme should be reformed in light of present day realities.
All the parties involved are aware that we are working towards having the scheme working properly once again and it is not going to take more than three months and this decision was taken about a week or two weeks ago, so we still have like two months and two weeks to go.
The automotive industry, if you have ever gone through the National Automotive Policy of the Federal Government, it has never been intended that Nigeria should keep importing vehicles. The policy states that at some point we are going have to design our own vehicles and produce low cost vehicles. So, since this is not the executive arm of government, the only thing we can do is to put together a bill that will help to promote the early attainment of the policy. This is to say that we came up with bill that will help the sector then the sector will be able to act directly in accordance with the requirement of the National Automotive Policy. I submitted a report on the floor of the Senate and the report is the harmonization of the bill. We have two basic institutions before, first is the Center for Automotive Design and Development and then we have the Automotive Council, National Automotive Council (NAC) and (CAD). Both had similar functions and we looked at the fact that at the time when both institutions were set up there was need for such, but now with advancement and so many changes taking place, there is no need for both organizations to exist side by side. The bill is now is bringing the two agencies together, strengthening and empowering them to achieve their mandate. I think if they are to work in accordance with what is in the policy, jobs will be created and very soon we may even have made-in-Nigeria vehicles.
What impact can foreign direct investment have on the economy?
No it wouldn’t kill our local manufacturers, because even our local manufacturers need the injection of the foreign funds. So, if you are able to attract foreign direct investment, it will help us in ensuring that money goes into the real sector where goods are manufactured and people are employed. The manufacturing sector is a big employer of labor, so I think it will be a good thing. You see with the present security realities on the ground, I don’t see that working properly. If you look at it yourself the bible say we should not do unto others what we don’t want others to do unto us. If you look at a situation in a country where the security is not working would you want to take your money and go and invest there? That is serving as a discouragement to those who would want to come and invest in Nigeria that is why I think whatever our differences are, we should settle it amicably, let peace reign so that development can start taking place.
So what is your assessment of the status of internal generated revenue, should we be doing more or are we doing very well?
Well they are doing very well because if I say we are not doing very well compared to many years, I think I would not be telling the truth. We have greatly improved be it in the collection by the Customs, Federal Inland Revenue Services and even the states revenue boards, but as I said at the beginning in every human endeavor there is room for improvement, so I think they can still improve.
Articles
Insecurity, lack of power scare foreign investors – Sen. Nenadi Usman
Category: Inside politics Written by Amina Alhassan Hits: 1863
Senator Nenadi Usman (PDP, Kaduna South Senatorial District) spoke to Weekly Trust on what her committee on investment is doing to revive the textile and automobile industry in Nigeria. Excerpts:
Weekly Trust: As a first time Senator and a woman, what have been the challenges so far?Senator Nenadi Usman: Whether you are a male senator or female senator, you do practically the same job. The challenge for me is re-orientating myself completely as I came from the executive arm of government. So I needed a total re-orientation to adapt to the ways we are doing things in the parliament. It’s just my fist year and I believe I have settled and adjusted to all the basics to deliver the dividends of democracy to my constituency.
Talking about dividends of democracy; what do you have to show for this one year?
I wouldn’t say I have achieved so much because for everything you do there is always a room for improvement, but I have done quite a bit. For my electorate, the first thing I did was to make sure I am constantly in touch with them so that with the insecurity in the nation and the roads not being safe they don’t need to come to Abuja to look for me, I go home quite regularly, so that is first and foremost.
Second, I try to engage them in dialogue, so, most of the time, they get to know what I am doing here as I consult them a lot. The third issue is that I have been able to put the women together using the wives of the emirs and chiefs in my constituency. Incidentally I am one of them, so it is like being among my own group since I am the wife of an emir too. So the 24 wives of emirs and chiefs, we came together, brought the wives of district heads - we have 229 districts - we came together to try and work out an agricultural project for women. And I was so happy when the Federal Government came up with a new direction which the Minister of Agric is giving. So I sort of just tapped into it. I have been able to collect forms from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and we have shared them among the women and we have taken it from there.
The next thing is to look at the number of students and see what kind of scholarship I can give and to that we have designed forms and distributed them. As said I have 87 wards in my constituency, so I am trying to ensure that at least one bore hole is sank in each ward, because it will alleviate the suffering of the people going to look for water particularly women and children.
Then I am working alongside the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to train youths, boys and girls, in various trades starting from satellite dish installation, cell phones repairs, things that are in high demand because there are some trades that are more in demand than others.
As Chairman, Senate Committee on Investment, what are you doing to revive the automobile and textile industries?
The textile industry has always benefitted from the export expansion grant scheme of the Federal Government. Sometime back, we called the Ministers of Finance and Trade and Investment, Comptroller-General of Customs and then the textile manufacturers and cotton producers together. We reached a very amicable decision that the scheme should be reformed in light of present day realities.
All the parties involved are aware that we are working towards having the scheme working properly once again and it is not going to take more than three months and this decision was taken about a week or two weeks ago, so we still have like two months and two weeks to go.
The automotive industry, if you have ever gone through the National Automotive Policy of the Federal Government, it has never been intended that Nigeria should keep importing vehicles. The policy states that at some point we are going have to design our own vehicles and produce low cost vehicles. So, since this is not the executive arm of government, the only thing we can do is to put together a bill that will help to promote the early attainment of the policy. This is to say that we came up with bill that will help the sector then the sector will be able to act directly in accordance with the requirement of the National Automotive Policy. I submitted a report on the floor of the Senate and the report is the harmonization of the bill. We have two basic institutions before, first is the Center for Automotive Design and Development and then we have the Automotive Council, National Automotive Council (NAC) and (CAD). Both had similar functions and we looked at the fact that at the time when both institutions were set up there was need for such, but now with advancement and so many changes taking place, there is no need for both organizations to exist side by side. The bill is now is bringing the two agencies together, strengthening and empowering them to achieve their mandate. I think if they are to work in accordance with what is in the policy, jobs will be created and very soon we may even have made-in-Nigeria vehicles.
What impact can foreign direct investment have on the economy?
No it wouldn’t kill our local manufacturers, because even our local manufacturers need the injection of the foreign funds. So, if you are able to attract foreign direct investment, it will help us in ensuring that money goes into the real sector where goods are manufactured and people are employed. The manufacturing sector is a big employer of labor, so I think it will be a good thing. You see with the present security realities on the ground, I don’t see that working properly. If you look at it yourself the bible say we should not do unto others what we don’t want others to do unto us. If you look at a situation in a country where the security is not working would you want to take your money and go and invest there? That is serving as a discouragement to those who would want to come and invest in Nigeria that is why I think whatever our differences are, we should settle it amicably, let peace reign so that development can start taking place.
So what is your assessment of the status of internal generated revenue, should we be doing more or are we doing very well?
Well they are doing very well because if I say we are not doing very well compared to many years, I think I would not be telling the truth. We have greatly improved be it in the collection by the Customs, Federal Inland Revenue Services and even the states revenue boards, but as I said at the beginning in every human endeavor there is room for improvement, so I think they can still improve.