Malam Aliyu Yusha’u, an Economist, has urged the Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and Public Private Partnership Secretariat of the FCT Administration to evolve strategies to boost its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Yusha’u, who made the call at an interactive session with newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, also emphasised the need for the secretariat to reduce the costs of governance of the administration.
He said the cost of governance was occasioned by the geometric increase in the influx of people into the FCT thereby making it one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
“The secretariat that was recently established by the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, had a herculean task of galvanising all stakeholders to identify areas where sustainable investment could be made to scale up revenue generation.
“The dwindling government revenue requires a high wired solution that would help in the sustenance of revenue generation for the administration to discharge its responsibilities of providing services to the residents.
“There is need for the secretariat to prioritise the transportation system in FCT by working hard to attract investors that could standardised it and make it efficient and profitable,’’ Yusha’u said.
Yusha’u also explained that several opportunities for agricultural value chains that could be exploited exist for the secretariat to take advantage of.
“If the FCT administration wants to reduce cost of governance, there is need to provide world class infrastructural development, which both working and non working classes of residents can leverage to build economic capacity.
“In my opinion, unless we coordinate economic activities, there is no way we can proffer solutions to our budgetary deficiencies, therefore, the creation of the economic secretariat is a welcomed development.
“First of all, there is need to identify the public capability and interests, these two things must be put into cognisance.
“Then create an awareness and go ahead to institutionalise the body that can coordinate investors within the city, across the country and outside the country while we also identify the basic challenges of the city.”
He observed that the basic challenges in FCT, was deficient transportation system, adding that the residents, especially those at the suburb depends on transportation system.
He, therefore, said that the new secretariat would have to find a way to make the transport system standard and look for investors both within and outside the country. (NAN)
