Chairman of the Commission, Engr. Elias Mbam, made this call yesterday when he received a delegation from Katsina State Government in his office in Abuja.
The delegation was led by the Commissioner for Finance Muhammad Lawal Jari, who represented Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema.
Others in the delegation included the commissioners of environment, agriculture, local government and chieftaincy affairs and the accountant-general of the state.
A statement issued by Ibrahim Mohammed, Head of Public Relations of the RMAFC said Mbam observed that for states to effectively harness their resources, they needed to leverage on areas of comparative advantage for optimum productivity rather than dissipate energy and resources on non-viable sectors.
The statement said that the commission was willing to avail states desirous of diversifying their economy of its Diversification Blueprint and also enable them draw funds from the Natural Resources Fund domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria for the development of natural resources like agriculture, tourism, solid minerals and the manufacturing sectors.
In his presentation earlier, the Lawal Jari who presented the state’s diversification blueprint to the chairman said the state’s major resources are derived from agriculture, rating it the highest producer of cotton in Nigeria.
He disclosed that the state, with a population of about 2.43 million people, has vast expanse of land, several large, medium and small scale dams, adding that it was vigorously pursuing a number of agricultural and agro-allied policies in order to attract private sector participation.
