Sound economic development could only be attained when the economy of a country is diversified.

Onno Ruhl , World Bank Director in Nigeria while speaking at the August 2009 Breakfast Forum of the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce sponsored by Soe Properties Limited said that for Nigeria to achieve  the millennium development  goal, it must not depend only on oil alone.

He said that, for Nigeria to realize its dream of a strong non-oil sector economy, it must adopt and implement a deliberate policy that would guarantee its agricultural development.

Agriculture which accounted for 35 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and supported more than 70 per cent of the population recorded 5.6 per cent national growth. Nigeria had yet to fully utilize its considerable agricultural potentials.

The World Bank Chief also said that the crisis in the banking industry in Nigeria was caused by the tremendous lending to private sector without collateral securities and, bearing in mind, lack of holistic credit status monitoring facility in Nigeria which, at the end of the day, resulted in non-performing loans and eventually brought about the removal of the Chief Executive Officers of five banks.

World Bank had been working closely with Nigeria on the FS 2020 initiative and would also help Central Bank of Nigeria to finance its deficit. Also, he urged foreign banks to invest in African banks so as to ensure their viability.

‘Nigeria needs to de-emphasize importation of goods, so that local industries in the country can grow. No country in the World that depends so much on importation would witness strong economic development’, he said.

In his response, Tom Bassett, Vice Chairman, Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce thanked the World Bank Chief for his well presented speech and hoped the Nigerian economy could be better managed to realize its full potentials as quickly as possible.