NAN-H-89
Economy
By Ibukun Emiola
Ibadan, March 1, 2018 (NAN) A don of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Adeola Adenikinju, on Thursday urged the Federal Government to use the improvement in the Nation’s economic index to accelerate development.
Adenikunju, who is the Director, Centre for Petroleum Energy Economics and Law (CPEEL) in the University, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan.
He was reacting to the recent record released by the National Bureau of Statistics that there an overall increase of 0.82 per cent in the economy in 2017.
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“It is an indication that the country is heading in the right direction; our economic activities are picking up gradually.
“But on the flip side of things is that the growth is anaemic, it’s still very low for a developing country with the kind of population that we have,
“With the level of unemployment that we have and poverty we expect that the economy will do much better than that especially when we are in a period where the price of oil has continued to trend positively which is our major commodity really major export.
“So ordinarily one will expect that the country will do better than that.”
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The economist who commended the growth in the economy however expressed mixed feelings at the performance of the economy since it exited recession.
He noted that though it has continued to be on the positive trajectory but there is the need for a faster pace.
Adenikinju further said the kind of growth rate experienced by Nigeria would have been fine if it were a developed country with a level of optimal capacity.
“We have to do more, I think the government has to do more to ensure that we can improve on the growth record of the country.
“With all of this growth, if you look at per capital income divide it by our population growth rate, it will show you that our real growth rate is actually negative.
“We are taking some basic steps but these are not major breakthrough that we want, they are not things that will actually elicit the kind of expansion that we need to mop up the huge unemployment in the economy or reduce poverty significantly.”
The professor of economics further highlighted ways to accelerate growth in the nation’s economy especially as the country is in its pre-election year.
“What we really need to do is to ensure that the issue of security and political uncertainties are tackled.
“These are really critical as they provide foundation for any meaningful economic development or for the economic plan of the government to take root.
“People must believe in the policies and must be willing to commit resources because it is the private sector that will eventually drive this growth.
“What the government has to do will be to continue to provide infrastructure; road, electricity, security and conducive environment for business to operate, these are really important.”
Adenikinju said diversification of the economy does not imply abandonment of crude oil, but efforts to refine the product in the country, stop gas flaring and allow private sector to drive the economy.
“Let private sector build refineries that will save us a lot of foreign exchange that is spent on importing the product into the country,” he said. (NAN)
IBK/LAB/IS
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Edited by Lydia Beshel/Ismail Abdulaziz