By Abisola THOMPSON
An economist, Dr Doyin Salami, says Nigeria must record a successful election in order to drive the economy expansively and reduce unemployment.
Salami, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Kainos Edge Consulting Ltd., made the assertion at the launch of the 3rd edition of Macroeconomic Outlook Report for 2019 by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) on Monday in Lagos.
The report is titled: “Steering Nigeria through the Inclusive Growth Pathway”.
He said the government needed to ensure an enabling environment of legislation, policy, regulation and mindset that speaks to a descent role without being afraid of private sector of the economy.
This, he added, would give the country the ability to record a dent on the country’s 23 per cent unemployment rate level as well as its social implications.
Salami said the Federal Government needed to be mindful of the implications of heavy borrowing on the country.
He noted that there should be more efforts at ensuring that the country attracted more foreign direct Investment for national development, while stressing the needed to plan beyond year 2020.
Slami said a country like Saudi Arabia had 2030 vision document, adding that the country needed to re-articulate its vision document to allow the private sector contributions in its programmes for infrastructure development.
He said that the nation equally needed private capital to improve government spending and on all infrastructure to be upgraded rapidly and allowed expansion.
According to him, failure to do this may affect how far the country can go.
He also said that there were other alternative ways for funding that could be considered other than borrowing.
“Without articulating this, it becomes very difficult to invite the private sector to key into government’s programmes and to determine what policies the country needs to adopt
“We are already clear that Nigeria is capital under-short which the Central Bank of Nigeria said in a communique issued after its Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
“It also draws attention to Nigeria’s indebtedness and its consequences,” he added.
The economist said that if Nigeria could invest very well in infrastructure, it would change the whole debate on currency and foreign exchange reserves discussions.
The former MPC member, however, said that it also had its own downside but could be managed.
Salami said that the government equally needed to invest in education as an enabler for growth but noted that it had to be inclusive.
He said: “Nigeria is today where China was 40 years ago. Then, eight out of 10 Chinese was poor but today less than two per cent of China population is poor.
“The Chinese reckoned that between two to three years, it will take its population out of poverty.
“This is a type of thinking that will help us define and push for a vision.
“Power and Education are sine qua non, and should be the major drivers for a change of vision for the Nigerian economy.”
Earlier, Dr Olusegun Omisakin, Head of Research, NESG, said there was need for inclusive growth to be prioritised across board by policy makers, taking advantage of the current recovery cycle.
According to him, projections into the 2019 is based on three assumptions, including oil price, production and government capital expenditure.
Omisakin said that for the country to grow it has to stick its growth ideal on an inclusive modem based on three pillars.
He said the pillars included broad based growth where most sectors must be seen contributing to the nation’s development and investing in human development capital as well as social inclusion and good governance
Omisakin said the outcome of the elections would likely shape investment in the country.
This, he added, included policies, debt management, public sector spending, security and governance reforms among others.
