THE three-day 21st Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG, conference has come and gone, with the stakeholders both in private and public sector hoping to see the country realise its potentials within the shortest possible time. However, stakeholders in the private sector have expressed concern over implementation of the far reaching recommendations put before the Federal Government for consideration.
Though, they noted that the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had the pedigree to transform the economy if the ministers, legislature and judiciary are able to work assiduously and adopt the spirit of transparency and accountability in their respective functions.
Meanwhile, some of the prominent stakeholders in attendance at this year’s summit include representative of public sector, such as Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of Nigeria, Mr. Bassey Akpanyung, Executive Secretary of National Planning Commission, Dr. Joe Abba, Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reform, Dr. Ndidi Edozien, Chief Strategy Officer, Strategy and Execution and Consultant to Office of the Head of Service on a Federal Civil Service Competency Development, Shamsudden Usman, former Minister /Deputy Chairman, National Planning Commission, NPC, Mr. Ben Akabueze, former Commissioner, Budget and Planning, Lagos State and majority of State Governors among others.
Private sector
For the private sector, we had Dr. Ayo Teriba, Mr. Kunle Elebute, Senior partner, KPMG, Nigeria, Dr. Temitope Oshikoya, former Chief Economist, African Development Bank, Mrs. Sola David Borha, CEO, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Dr. Biodun Adedipe, Private Sector Co-Chair, Joint Planning Committee, just to mention a few. Some of the foreign stakeholders were also in attendance. They include former Prime Minister of Georgia, Mr. Nika Gilauri,
The stakeholders stated that if the tough choices are made and the government takes advantage of its competitiveness, sustain them, then we should see a Nigeria that is safe, secure,stable environmentally table and globally competitive. Some of the things the stakeholders discoursed at the forum included the fact that government should allow equitable access to opportunities to all the citizens, improve security, justice, inclusive growth, education, diversification, governance, infrastructure, health, youth empowerment and gender equality fairness.
The tough choices: Participants at the summit agreed that infrastructure was critical.
Infrastructure: According to them “There should be privatization/concession of the railways (focus on freight), major highways, major airports, refineries/pipelines/depots; adoption of alternative financing options in the areas of infrastructure investment both directly and through PPPs; privatization of the power transmission network and increase power generation to achieve 20,000 MW
Legislations:“ Identify all obsolete laws that are impediments of GCI and ease of doing business and expedite speedy legislation; Simplify regulation to eliminate bottlenecks and outdated laws.
Tackling Corruption: “Strengthen legal framework for repatriation of stolen funds; ‘Walk the talk’ – No sacred cows; Institutionalise disincentives for graft; Strengthen existing framework for information sharing, intelligence gathering and response to Security Threats of people, infrastructure, early warning systems.
Other tough choices to be made according to them include: Restructuring of the overall governance of the oil sector by splitting the operator and regulator reporting lines; Break up the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into manageable issue-specific laws that amend existing laws or regulations that the Legislative arm of government are not opposed to. For example, amending tax laws to incentivise gas, clarifying gas terms for the Production Sharing Contracts; Passing the PIB as restructured and Immediately address the lengthy contracting cycle to reduce the lead time (currently 24-36 months) by delegating more decisions to the private-sector operators and implementing a streamlined contract review and approval process that seamlessly integrates contracting requirements by various agencies.
Specific sectors
On specific sectors, the stakeholders stated as follows:
Education tough choices:
“Increase budgetary allocation to education to 20%; train, enhance, recognize and reward our teachers; Implement the laws on national skills standardization, certification and apprenticeship programmes; raise the quality and standards of universities to redress the outflow of students to foreign countries ; Increase investment in vocational education; educational institutions should provide strong entrepreneurial orientation at all levels and curriculum development must take into cognizance the needs of the employers of labour.
Education & Skills Tough Choices:“Achieve universal basic health coverage for Nigeria through innovative funding in insurance and micro-insurance solutions; Provide tax incentives and government funded research grants to local manufacturers of pharmaceutical products ;Convert 1,000 hospital beds in 5 teaching hospitals into world class private wings with funding, expertise and management by world class healthcare companies.
Tough Choices On Job Creation
“Stable and Competitive Economy; Eliminate bottlenecks that hinder Private Sector investment; Efficient and Creative Support for SMEs; Pick industry sectors in which to create competitive advantage;
Tough Choices On Micro, Small & Medium Businesses: “ Eliminate inefficiencies in registration processes (Automation, DIY techniques, information portals); Eliminate bottlenecks and excessive costs attached to over-regulation and multiple agencies; Review cumbersome licensing procedures and multiple costs which acts as a disincentive to MSMEs.
Tough Choices On SDGs: “Create a framework for national implementation of the SDGs; Network of private actors to drive implementation of corporate social investments and sustainability standards.
The stakeholders also noted that in terms of the competiveness of the country, it should look at where it is now and what needs to be changed. According to them the country now is faced with the following: Pervasive Corruption;
Weak levels of accountability; Poor Infrastructure; Weak Institutions; Ineffective institutions; Inadequate Legislation, Regulations & Policies; Obsolete legislation and Multiplicity
Sub-optimal Human Capital: They further listed other factors facing Nigeria to include: Heightened insecurity; security threats and rising poverty amidst economic growth. Commenting on non inclusive growth, the stakeholders suggested that government should pull more people into productive sectors of the economy as the country is currently faced with high unemployment, high inflation rate, high interest rates and lack of opportunities
Southern Governors deliberation
As part of measures to cushion the effects of the dwindling economic fortune of the states in the southern region, the Governors unanimously agreed that there was need for a regional integration and economic co-operation amongst member states. The governors, who took their turns to speak at a parallel design workshops at the just concluded summit said the time has come for states at the regional level to come together and team up and harness their aggregate potentials in the individual states.
First to take stage was Governors Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, who described the present structure of the country, saying that Nigeria is so fragmented into smaller units that the component states could hardly record significant impact as individual states. “We inherited a legacy from the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo, competiveness for our region. Those who are talking about states, I laugh at them, the states in Nigeria are so atomized, there is hardly anything really they can do as a state, yes you can make effort, but regions are better placed to advance the economic interest of their people, working together.
“In Lagos State, because of its location there is a huge concentration of people that can serve as a market for agricultural produce from the hinterland, so we have worked hard in developing the potentials of our people for modern agriculture.”Aregbesola who expressed strong feelings for regional convergence also called for immediate removal of the ‘His Excellency’ toga from the Governors, saying that such title should be an exclusive reserve of the President.
In his view, the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun,stated that the importance of regional integration and cooperation among regional states cannot be overemphasized and called for support. “Imagine a situation where over 50 per cent of the middle and lower cadre of the work force in Lagos State live in Ogun State. They put pressure on us in Ogun State but then they pay their taxes to Lagos State government.
Proximity to Lagos
“In the area of IGR, of course we are leveraging on our proximity to Lagos and I hope that they are listening now so that they will continue to pay us all our dues.”
In the same vein, the Anambra State Governor, Mr. Willie Obiano underscored the need for cooperation among states for accelerated economic development. He said his government is working with the Enugu State government to see how investors can develop coal because according to him, Enugu State has coal in abundance and that they were looking at a scenario where the two states can share the power generated from the coal power project.
According to Obiano, “Anambra State government is presently working with Delta State Government on the issue of waste management.”
Also lending his voice, to the call for regional integration, Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, said his government is taking advantage of the strategic geographic location of the state to create a logistics centre in the state. “We are trying to create a logistics centre in Oyo State, we are trying to create a network of industrial developments logistics. We have just concluded an arrangement to have storage facilities, manufacturing outfits near an industrial park and the industrial park is next to the inland container depot that is a dry port.
“We have also just signed an agreement with some Chinese who are now ready to help us develop a small rail system that will be coupled up with the federal government line.What we are saying is that we are looking at our size to take advantage and use it to integrate with other neighboring states,”said Governor Ajimobi.
“What my government is doing about regional integration is to look at best practices. In the area of IGR, our IGR is very low, about N1.2 billion monthly and we have looked at what Lagos State did and within a span of 10 years Lagos State was able to move its IGR by more than 500 per cent. What we did was to take the staff of the Lagos State internal revenue service and install them in Oyo state.” he said.
Declare state of emergency on cattle rustling – Northern Governors
Worried by the increasing spate of cattle rustling across the country, Governors from the Northern part of the country at the submit, said the activities of cattle rustlers in the country, particularly in the region was much and called on Federal Government to take urgent steps to curb it. Governor Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna State, who took the first shot at the meeting, noted that security challenge remained one of the key difficulties faced by the region.
Solution to the menace
According to him, collective effort is needed to aid federal government in finding a lasting solution to the menace. He lamented activities of the rustlers, saying that recent invasion of farm house of former Vice President where they carted away all his livestock, in addition to causing severe damage to farmlands of poor peasants, was unacceptable.
El-Rufai who spoke on behalf of governors of the North West region said “the attempts to get help from the Federal Government failed, following complaints of shortage of funds by the Federal Government to handle the situation.
“Through the synergy by governors of the region, the North West Governors have been able to fund a task force who have been able to degrade the activities of the bandit rustlers and recovered well over 12,000 stolen cattle.” As part of efforts to curb the vices, the Governors said they recently formed a regional security synergy to check the excesses of the cattle rustlers and other bandits parading around the region.
On education sector, the Governors lamented the poor state of education in the region. Quoting a recent audit report published on teachers that stated that over 60 percent of teachers were not qualified to teach. To address the issue, they noted that 3,000 graduate teachers of English and Mathematics had been recruited to fill the gap.
END
Be the first to comment