Diversification of the Nigerian Economy

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It is one thing to have raw minerals, it is another thing to convert these raw materials into finished goods. The question is, " Does the country have what it takes to convert their raw materials into finished goods?" It is sad to say that Nigeria amidst all its available mineral resources still operate a backward and poor economy and depends solely on its oil reserves. Even the said oil reserves, how well is it maintained?

Nigeria is a country blessed with so many mineral resource ranging from crude oil, gold, limestone, coal,and so on. The issue of diversification has been a major problem and a threat to the economy. Many laws and reforms had been made towards establishing this goal but all failed. Some failed because there was no infrastructure to back up the plan, others failed because there was no body to enforce the project, some had low budget to start up and so on. All this has made the country to solely depend on oil as its source of revenue in the economy.

As one of the major exporters of crude oil, Nigeria does not have the facilities to refine their oil. The country sends out unrefined oil and buys them back when refined or buy finished oil goods. This is not healthy on the economy. This is because it has labelled the country as  a major importing country. A country gains more from exporting finished oil goods, than when it exports unrefined oil.

Some will say, " Since Nigeria exports crude oil, her prices of oil will be affordable". But the reverse is the case. As of today a litre of fuel is about ₦1400 per litre which is not good for an oil exporting nation. This in turn has led to multiplier effect like increase in transportation, consumer goods, increase in cost of living, inadequate supply of infrastructural facilities leading to poor or no development of other sectors of the economy and so on. Since the oil sector is not helping the economy as it should, this tells us that there is a need for the country to diversify the economy to help build the other sectors so as to generate more revenue for the economy.