‘Coronavirus pandemic, opportunity to diversify economy’

The Director-General of the National Productivity Centre, Dr Kashim Akor, has called on the federal and state governments and other relevant stakeholders to see the lockdown period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to redefine the economy.

Akor, in a chat with Daily Trust on Sunday, noted that the world’s economy cannot remain the same again after the pandemic.

He said:  “I’m looking at the issue of diversification of the economy which the government administration has started.”

He stressed that more efforts should be put in place to develop the agricultural sector as it “has the potential of providing jobs, providing an opportunity for us to feed ourselves, to export our products and earn the much-desired foreign exchange for developmental purposes.”

“I want to appeal to Nigerians that, now, more than ever before, think about productivity. This is not the time for wastefulness, this is not the time for misuse of resources, there must be effective and efficient utilization of any resources we have”.