The National Planning Commission (NPC) has said that Cross River State’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) dropped to N1.28 trillion in 2011 from N1.32 trillion achieved in 2010.
The supervising Minister for NPC, Bashir Yuguda, attributed the dip in GDP by N40 billion to the drop in the state’s 2011 oil revenue.
The statistics also showed that the state’s industrial sector declined by 66 per cent in the period under review as against an earlier fall of 70 per cent recorded in 2009.
“Agriculture grew from 20 per cent to 23 per cent within the same period while other services sector grew from 10 per cent in 2009 to 11 per cent in 2011,” he said.
He said that the agriculture sector was growing faster, especially in the area of crops production, adding that there was need for the diversification of the economy.
He said that Cross River was among the seven pilot states from the six geo-political zones used to understudy the national economy.
The other states are Rivers, Anambra, Gombe, Lagos, Niger and Kano.
Mr Yuguda said that the report specifically showed the state of the economy in the seven states using agriculture, industry and the services sector.
Governor Liyel Imoke lauded the NPC and the National Bureau of Statistics for the exercise, adding that it would guide the state properly in policy planning and implementation.
“When we know what our GDP is, it will enable us to deliver the needed democracy dividends to our people,” he said. “The presentation has given us the size of our economy for proper planning.”
Mr Imoke said that the provision of infrastructure driven by demand was the only way of eradicating poverty in the state.
He called for the amendment of the extractive industry law, and its removal from the exclusive list, stressing that it was economically prudent for states not have a say in the minerals extracted in their domain.
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