Anchor Insurance boss charges FG to diversify economy through tourism

By Abdul Olalekan

The Managing Director, Anchor Insurance Limited, Mr. Mayowa Adeduro, has urged the Federal Government to diversify the nation’s economy through tourism and agriculture.

Adeduro, in an exclusive interview with Business 247 News Online in Lagos, noted that tourism is a lucrative industry that can generate trillions of Naira on a yearly basis, if well managed, adding that there are lots of tourist centres in the country that are under-utilised.

For government to generate much income from tourism, he noted that government must maintain all tourist centres in the country, while urging government to equally provide stable environments that will attract tourist from within and outside the country to visit most of tourist centre in the country.

According to him, “Tourism is another economic diversification window, apart from agriculture. If you look at tourism now, all we need is a stable and secure environment, which will make people coming to the country for tourist visit. Government must realise we are too dependent on oil and must be looking at initiatives that can diversify the income of the country.”

While believing the current economic diversification through agriculture will not bear fruit in a short time, he added that if the plan could be sustained, it will yield more income than oil for the country.

“The current economic diversification is mainly focused on agriculture and it is not something that could be achieved in a year. If you want to be the biggest producer of cocoa, you just have to start the planning now.  Be that it as it may, it is good for us that we have started the plan and must be sustained from time to time,” he stressed.

Insurance industry, according to him, has a lot to benefit from the current economic diversification agenda of the government, by insuring some of the production chains in agriculture, among other sectors, noting that Anchor Insurance is keying into this diversification plan by expanding its outreach to the grassroots through some its conventional and unconventional policies.