OSUN State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has urged the Federal Government to redouble its efforts towards improved power generation by speeding up the process of privatising the power sector in the country.Aregbesola pointed out that the problem of inadequate power supply in the country was being accentuated by the monopoly of the sector by government and called for involvement of the private sector in the operations of the strategic industry.Speaking at the 2011 National Business Analysis Conference in Abuja, the governor noted that the current attempt to privatise the sector has been slow and dogged by policy inconsistency.While urging the Federal Government to speed up the process, Aregbesola called on government to set, pursue and ensure the realisation of new target of 50,000 megawatts by 2020 and also give every incentive to the private sector to enable them participate in realising the objective.He said: 'There is an ambition on the part of the nation to be a big player in the global economy. We are currently pursuing the dream of being among the biggest economies in 2020. Although the government is trying to correct the situation, the business environment is far from being conducive for the realisation of this lofty goal'.Represented by his Special Adviser on Federal Matters, Oluyemisi Babalola, the governor stressed the need to develop other sectors of the economy like agriculture, manufacturing, and solid minerals, adding that some of the items on the nation's import bill like toothpicks are scandalous.He said: 'These are items that could be locally produced with little incentives if the will is there. We are deriving little from our exports, even oil, because there is no value added. We should be able to refine our total crude production and export the excess we cannot consume. By this, more jobs will be created, more tax will come into government's coffers and the cost of refined fuel at fuel stations will be less than the imported ones.'In his address, the President, International Institute of Business Analysis (Nigerian Chapter) Awe Oludayo, said that for Nigeria to join the rank of the 20 biggest economies in the world by year 2020, it must transit from being a commodity-based economy to a knowledge-based economy.According to the Programme Director of the conference, Mr. Robinson Igwe, 'For Nigeria as nation to stand any chance of seeing our vision 20:2020 turn to reality, then our politics, projects, reforms, restructuring, policies and programmes, legislations and regulations, bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements must begin to make business sense in direct relation to our aspirations as a developing nation. They must meet the requirements necessitated by the Nigerian Dream.
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