The first day of the 22nd edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES22), which took place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja on 10th October 2016 was attended by the president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, the Vice president, Yemi Osinbanjo and almost all the ministers in the current administration.
The day one discussions were centered on improving the state of the economy, reducing the cost of governance, imbedding accountability at all levels and breaking through macroeconomic headwinds. Several issues affecting the country were also raised, and these include the following:
Bridging the Communication Gap
This is a very big issue affecting the Nigeria’s current administration. The government has on several occasions continued to show that there is a communication gap between the members of the cabinet. During today’s session several panelists spoke about this.
“One area where I think the government is doing itself a bad service is that it doesn’t communicate well,” said Dr Adedoyin Salami; Chairman, NESG Board Committee on Research and Publication while giving the keynote presentation
“We have to be very careful about partial analyses that do not tell the true story.” – Professor Osita Ogbu, Director, Institute of Development Studies.
“We need to see coherent communication of policy.” – Peju Adebajo, MD, Geocycle and Project Management Office, Lafarge.
Diversification of the economy
In a bid to pull the country out of the current economic situation caused by over reliance on oil as its only source of revenue, the government has identified that diversification of the economy is the way out.
However there are concerns that the country needs to diversify its economy beyond the four sectors which it has identified. This is to avoid a similar situation in the coming years.
“It is not about diversification, it is about reducing the level of dependence on the four sectors,” said Dr Adedoyin.
The Agricultural sector
From all indications, it seems Nigeria’s diversification plan has mainly been focused on agriculture. The country is working so hard to be able to produce locally and export some of these products in order to generate foreign currency.
According to the Vice president, Yemi Osibanjo who participated in the plenary session, all the focus on the agricultural sector is beginning to yield positive results.
“We are investing heavily in rice production in 12 major rice producing states” said Osinbajo.
“The whole agro-allied value chain is one that is just waiting to happen,” he added. “Nigeria is looking to process and export shea butter.”
“Agriculture will be moved from just subsistence agriculture to production agriculture,” Zainab Ahmed also explained during the summit.
The fight against Corruption
Since president Buhari assumed office, the fight against corruption and the arrest of current and former government officials has been in full swing. The country also announced that some of the funds looted by a former president, Sani Abacha has been recovered. This news came at a time when the government was struggling to raise money to fund the 2016 budget.
CNN correspondent, Zain Asher who was moderating the panel of policy makers asked Nigeria’s Vice president where the money that has been recovered so far was kept, and why the government is still stating that it doesn’t have money to fund the budget. In response the Vice president said, “N350 billion is what we expect to recover as corruption proceeds. We have not been able to recover all that in cash.”
Ease of doing business environment
In the World Bank Ease of doing business report, Nigeria ranks number 180 out of 189. This is largely due to the challenges associated with starting a business in Nigeria due to the bureaucratic nature of the Nigerian system.
“Nigeria has a target to move up 20 places in the ease of doing business in the next year,” said Zainab Ahmed
“A presidential council on the ease of doing business has been set up,” Zainab added.
The Mineral sector
Nigeria is blessed with huge mineral deposits which have largely been untapped due to its over dependence on oil as its only source of revenue. However, that seems to be changing as the government has also identified the Solid Mineral sector as another sector that will pull Nigeria out of its current situation in the long haul. The only hindrance that could make this mission futile, is that unlike other sectors, the solid mineral sector requires huge capital before any improvement can be recorded.
Watch the highlights from day 1:
