Nume Ekeghe
The federal government has been advised to embrace technology so as to aid economic growth in the country.
The Chief Executive, Kainos Edge Consulting, Dr. Adedoyin Salami, gave the advice in a keynote address he delivered yesterday, at the Risk Management Association of Nigeria 19th annual lecture, where risk managers gathered to discuss the topic: “Economic Recovery and Development: Leveraging Technological Innovation.”
Salami, also said that if properly harnessed, the Nigerian could grow at double digits and could become a world power in 20 years.
Salami said: “The time frame in which countries are developing and achieving rapid growth is reducing sharply, largely on the back of technology and that is one of the key reasons why for me, the conference theme is crucial. “When you look at what has happened to other countries, technology has been a major player therein. Nigeria should pay attention to it.
“Most governments in this country are unable to appreciate how quickly this economy can grow on the basis of technology. As a country, we need to understand that it is about out.
“At the end of 2018, Nigeria was about the 30th economy in the world and if we must achieve our goal of the 20th the largest economy by the year 2020, we must double the size of this economy in the next one year.”
Furthermore, he pointed out that in addressing infrastructure deficit, it is important to bring in private capital to supplement government’s efforts.
He added: “If we define our targets of where should we be going, the federal government should define and be encouraged to achieve to where we have set as destination.
“For me, it is clear that Nigeria is a capital deficient country and to that extent, you cannot rely on public capital. So, private money must be brought to the table in order to supplement government money if we are going to get to where we are going.”
“In other words, the federal government should incentivise for growth. These incentives can be economic incentives but there are also institutional incentives, so can we not build institutions that ensure that over a period of time our country makes progress in a well-defined manner. “
On his part, President RIMAN Mr. Magnus Nnoka, who spoke on what prompted the discussion for the conference, said: “Every year, RIMAN as part of its mission tries to provoke discussions around topical issues of the moment. This year we have chosen to discuss economic recovery and development leveraging through technological innovation.
“If you look at what is happening globally why economies are not growing, whether it is in Asia Europe, America or Latin America where the economies are shrinking, so we feel at this point in time, the typical issues for most of the economies is on how to achieve a faster economic growth and how to take people out of poverty to achieve economic development.”
“The world is in the fourth industrial revolution today silently and if you also look at the history of developed economies most of them leveraged technologies to get to where they are. “And for us particularly in Nigeria and Africa as the fourth industrial revolution comes, we need to see how we can tap into it to enhance the productive capacity of the economy.”
