By Sarah NEGEDU
The newly created Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and Public Private Partnership Secretariat of the FCTA would have to device new ways to scale up revenue generation and reduce the cost of governance in the territory.
Renown economist, Aliyu Yusha’u, in a chat with journalists in Abuja, advised the secretariat to galvanised all stakeholders to identify areas where sustainable investment could be made to scale up revenue generation.
Yusha’u noted that the dwindling government revenue requires a high wired solution that can help in the sustenance of revenue generation for the administration to carry-out her responsibilities of providing services to the residents of FCT amidst increase in cost of governance.
He stated that the cost of governance is often spiked by the geometric increase in the influx of people from other parts of the country into the FCT thereby making it one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
He said the secretariat also needs to prioritize the transportation system in FCT by working hard to attract investors that can standardised it and make it efficient and profitable.
While he stated that if the administration wants to reduce cost of governance, there was need for it to provide world class infrastructural development, which residents can leverage to their build economic capacity.
“In my own opinion, unless we coordinate economic activities, there is no way we can proffer solutions to our budgetary deficiencies, so therefore the creation of that Secretariat is a welcome development.
“First of all, there is need to identify areas of strength or capacity and public interests. These two things must be put into cognizance.
“Then create an awareness and go ahead to institutionalize the body that can coordinate investors within the city, Nigeria and outside the country. You also have to look at the challenges of the city, identify the basic challenges of the city.
“One of the basic challenges in FCT, is deficient transportation system, the residents, especially those at the suburb depend on transportation system.
“The new secretariat has to find a way to make the transport system standard and look for investors both within and outside Nigeria,” he said.
