Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, requires urgent economic diversification to step away from a single source of income (oil and minerals) and toward multiple sources of income, according to the African Development Bank.
Prof. Oyelaran-Oyeyinka Oyebanji, Senior Special Adviser on Industrialisation at the African Development Bank (AfDB), said this on Monday at the 22nd Founder’s Day Lecture of the Igbinedion University, Edo’s first private university.
What the African Development Bank said about diversification
“In order to achieve long-term recovery and development, Nigeria requires immediate economic diversification. Nothing illustrates the dangers of over-reliance on a single or limited range of resources more vividly than the recent drop in oil prices we saw in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19.
Economic diversification involves a transition away from a single source of income (oil and minerals) toward multiple sources of income from a broader range of industries, goods, and markets, he explained.