The Federal Government has said that it will not bow to the pressure by militants in the Niger Delta to release the former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and the Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujaheeden Asari -Dokubo.
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said this on Friday while responding to issues raised on the Niger Delta crisis by members of the Institute for International Finance, Zurich, Switzerland.
Okonjo-Iweala had attended the 2006 Spring Membership Meeting of the institute to brief the session on the nation�s economy.
The release of Alamieyeseigha and Asari-Dokubo is one of the key demands by the militants to end hostage-taking and for the restoration of peace to the troubled Niger Delta.
Alamieyeseigha is standing trial for corrupt enrichment while Dokubo is being tried for treason.
Okonjo-Iweala said although the government was determined to address the problems of the Niger Delta, it would not allow gangsterism to prevail in the region.
She said, “A serious challenge remains in the Niger Delta of the country for which a two-pronged approach is planned. There is no gainsaying the fact that after 50 years of oil exploitation in the Delta, poverty remains a serious problem among the people, and social capital is broken.
“This situation is however being exploited by criminal gangs and corrupt individuals for their own gain.”
Okonjo-iweala noted that the 13 per cent derivation being paid to oil-producing states was being considered for review to 18 per cent.
She said the government was also implementing some programmes through the Niger Delta Development Commission, in partnership with states, donors and non-governmental organisations, to ameliorate the situation in the region.
The minister added, “The government is equally fighting illegal oil theft, kidnappings and other forms of criminal activities in the Niger Delta. The security agencies have been strengthened and inter-agency coordination improved to make this possible.
“In sum, the government’s approach is to address the genuine problems of the population of the Niger Delta on the one hand, while dealing strongly with criminal elements on the other.”
On the economic reforms, she said that Nigeria had generated about $6billion from non-oil Foreign Direct Investment and remittances by Nigerians in the diaspora.
Presenting a paper titled �Nigeria�s Economic Reforms: Prospects and Challenges�, Okonjo-Iweala said the success of the reforms had been instrumental in increasing FDI flows to the non-oil sector.
She noted that preliminary estimates indicated non-oil FDI flows of about $3billion per annum, mostly in telecommunications, banking, manufacturing, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, construction and real estate, and agricultural sectors.
She added, �Remittances from the diaspora have also picked up significantly and are estimated at about $3billion per annum.
�Nigeria�s sovereign ratings by Fitch Rating Agency and Standard and Poor will further promote increased foreign and domestic investment within the economy.�
She said reforms were being implemented in the insurance sector to bring about consolidation within the industry.
�The expectation is that the 103 insurance businesses will consolidate to about 30 with a capitalisation of about $1.6billion,� said the minister.
Okonjo-Iweala added that the government would implement regulations designed to bring international best practice in terms of capacity build-up and utilisation, professionalism and the application of modern technology in Nigeria�s insurance industry.
These measures, according to her, will ensure that the insurance sector provides adequate protection against risks in all sectors of the economy.
She said that the consolidation in the banking sector led to an inflow of $652million of FDI into the country.
She admitted that the government was facing a significant challenge to maintain the soundness of the new banking sector .
The minister, however, stated that a number of measures had been designed to address corporate governance and integration towards ensuring a healthy banking sector.
The measures include implementation of guidelines to ensure a smooth liquidation of the banks that failed to meet the capitalisation requirements; completion of a post consolidation due diligence; development of new draft code of corporate governance; and adoption of a zero tolerance approach by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The minister further told the gathering that the government�s efforts to tackle corruption and ensure transparency had led to the implementation of a value-for-money audit of contracts or due process mechanism in public procurement.
She said the due process mechanism had saved the country over $3billion that would have been lost to inflated contracts in the last three years.
�In dealing with the issue of corruption and lack of transparency, we decided that rather than talk of tackling corruption in general terms, we would identify those sectors or areas where the practice(corruption) was rife and tackle them specifically,� she explained.
Besides, she said the new pension scheme had saved close to $400million in its first year of operations.
She said the scheme would provide a pool of savings for the development of Nigeria�s mortgage market, and facilitate other long-term infrastructural investments.
While acknowledging that the government was implementing measures to remove Nigeria from the Financial Action Task Force�s Non-Cooperative Countries list, the minister expressed the hope that the country would be de-listed during the June FATF plenary.
�Recent reports show that Nigeria has gone a long way to implement anti-money laundering provisions, to strengthen staffing in the Financial Intelligence Unit, and to meet all the other requirements demanded of us,� she said.