The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has advocated the need to focus on the non-oil sector to boost export and drive economic growth.
The minister who was represented by Barr. Ifunanya Nwajagu, Director, Legal Drafting at the Ministry of Justice made the call at the just concluded National Conference on creating Legal and Institutional Frameworks for Geographical Indications in Nigeria.
Recall that latest Gross Domestic Product figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that Nigeria’s economy grew by 3.98 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021 with the non-oil sector as the major contributor to the positive growth.
To this end, the AGF noted that focusing on Geographic Indications will serve as a further panacea for poverty reduction, community development and social inclusiveness.
According to him, “the time has come to move away from the oil economy. Surely, the time has come to embrace the green economy through economic drive powered by geographical indications for which Nigeria is richly endowed in quality assets and products.
“Needless to state clearly that Geographical Indications represent economic opportunities in rural areas, leading to more rural jobs and stronger rural communities.The right to use a geographical name belongs to the community of producers in a given area and empowers those who are involved in the origin of so many wonderful products thereby making Geographic Indications the perfect tool for local development,” the minister explained.
On the relevance of legal framework to back GIs, Mr. Malami said:”It is worthy of mention that we currently have varieties of unique agricultural and natural products that qualify as geographical indications such as “sokoto goats’ skin”, “Ijebu garri”, “skin hide of Kano”, “Kilishi”, “Yaji” (dry pepper), “Ose Nsukka” (Yellow pepper), “Aso Oke, “Adire”, “Ofada Rice”, “fura” and many more. Yet, none of these have benefitted from any comprehensive registration, international recognition and commercialisation.”