- Salami, others task govt on policy implementation
By Deji Elumoye, James Emejo and Sonia Mayomi in Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said economic growth and recovery must translate to “good-paying jobs and improved standard of living for our people” to be meaningful.
The president also called for
public and private sector collaboration to take timely immediate steps to enable the country achieve the desired national goals.
Buhari, at the opening of the 27th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#27), themed “Securing our Future: The Fierce Urgency of Now”, in Abuja, said “growth figures are meaningless if they do not translate to good-paying jobs and improved standard of living for our people”.
Represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Buhari added that, “The question, of course, I insist, that must be answered regarding all our policies, is what they mean for creation of wealth and human capacity development.”
However, he stated that the federal government’s new development plan incorporates aspects of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy which was articulated as a guide towards achieving poverty reduction target.
He pointed out that the starting point for the implementation of the strategy was the realisation that increased employment remained an indispensable tool for reducing poverty.
Buhari said that the federal government was responding to the challenges and opportunities of the moment by articulating forward-looking policies and strategies and implementing a coherent, clear and consistent set of actions in order to achieve our desired objectives.
He said the broad objectives of the new medium-term National Development Plan Plan are to diversify the economy, invest in critical infrastructure, build human capital and improve governance and security.
He added that the intention was to achieve broad-based and inclusive GDP growth in order to create 21 million jobs and lift 35 million people out of poverty by 2025.
He stressed that this ambitious but realisable target was consistent with government’s vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in a decade.
Buhari, however, said that the shock caused by the pandemic came at a time the country was striving to become a digital economy leapfrog into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
He said, “As if this is not a challenge enough, we are also required as a good member of the international community to take steps to mitigate and to adapt to climate change.
“This is not a simple matter if we bear in mind that we are reliant on oil and gas for revenues and export earnings and yet reducing the use of fossil fuels is the frontline strategy being urged for achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.”
Buhari, also listed some of the interventions by government whose results he noted, “are beginning to show although we must admit that there is still much more work to be done especially in the context of our stated priorities to reduce poverty and unemployment which call for urgency.”
He said, “The Economic Sustainability Plan adopted in response to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic was centered on tackling and reducing the COVID-19 caseload, restoring growth, protecting and creating jobs, rescuing businesses, and reducing social vulnerabilities.
“These were in addition to the priority actions that were already being taken in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan to invest in social and human capital, build power, road and rail infrastructure and improve the business environment.”
In the MSMEs space, the President said “we were also able through the MSME Survival Fund to support up to 1.1 million establishments and individuals. Particularly notable in this regard was the payroll support scheme wherein government was able to pay salaries to nearly 500,000 employees of MSMEs over a three-month period so that they could remain at work.”
In addition to the Survival Fund scheme, President Buhari explained further that “given the critical foreign exchange needs of the economy, we are also providing support to exporters through the Export Expansion Facility Programme and disbursement is ongoing to beneficiaries of the scheme.”
Speaking on the Solar Power Naija Project, the president explained that “it is another project of the Economic Sustainability Plan that will lead to the creation of a large number of jobs. We expect up to 250,000 jobs to be created from this effort to connect up to 5 million households to solar power.
“This project is particularly important in the context of climate change and in enabling Nigeria to generate renewable electric power against the background of its nationally determined contribution towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.”
He called for more public-private partnerships in the transport sector, adding that the efforts of the federal government are evident and yielding results.
He said, “We can all bear witness to the giant strides that are being made in infrastructure across the country. Rail services are already up and running from Abuja to Kaduna; Warri to Itakpe; and Lagos to Ibadan being the most notable.
“Similar investment is going on in major roads and bridges like the Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kano, Second Niger Bridge, and East-West Road amongst others. The Road Infrastructure Tax Credit scheme holds great potential as the work done on the Apapa-Oworonshoki Road has demonstrated.”
Buhari also identified digital economy “as another area with great potential and we are working on several initiatives to boost Business Process Outsourcing which can generate a large number of jobs while also contributing to substantial export earnings.”
Chairman, Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), Prof. Doyin Salami, on his part, said that the private sector remained key to solving the country’s economic challenges.
Speaking during the opening plenary of the summit titled, “Building a Secure Nigeria: Key Priorities for Economic Growth and Inclusion”, he said the private sector needed to be trusted and encouraged to boost resource mobilisation.
He said the notion that the government was rich and could afford to do everything was false.
He also said that rather than become a domesticator of innovation, Nigeria should actually contribute to innovation, stressing that the country would have led efforts for a vaccine amidst the COVID-19 pandemic if it were up and doing in that area.
Salami, among other things said, the country should also learn to implement policy initiatives rather than leave them on the shelf.
Also, speaking at the summit,
the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said the theme was consciously chosen to reflect the need for urgent and targeted action to address the current national challenges in the country.
The minister envisioned a Nigeria with a majority of the citizens lifted out of poverty and given access to fundamental services such as education, healthcare, water supply and sanitation, in line with the policy direction of the present administration.
She further craved a future with economic growth led by a thriving and innovative private sector resulting in a diversified economy with non-oil taxes as the major source of government revenue and the non-oil economy driving export expansion and accretion to our foreign reserves.
Ahmed said,”I see a future where our young and vibrant population is driving growth in high value-added services in the digital economy and professional, scientific and technical services.
“I envision a globally competitive Nigeria at the forefront of advances in medium and high-tech manufacturing, characterised by increased product complexity and leveraging on our natural endowments.”
She added, “This future we all crave will be achieved by the dedication and hard work of all stakeholders, with leadership at the Federal, State and Local Government levels and in collaboration with the corporate sector.”
The minister noted that the business sector remained a key engine of growth that must play a crucial role in achieving the future we envisage.
According to her, to realise this paradigm shift is incontrovertible.
This, she said will entail comprehensive and targeted reforms, a reorientation of national values, and a radical shift in attitudes to taxation and public financial management.
She said this is consistent with the focus of the present dministration on targeted investment in critical infrastructure and social development.
Moreover, Ahmed, during the plenary, said the Buhari administration was creating an enabling environment for the business landscape particularly for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in agriculture.
She said the government had provided incentives for micro businesses relieving them of 30 per cent tax burden to almost about zero per cent.
But stakeholders said to achieve the desired outcomes, the government must move from paying lip service to reforms to actual implementation.
They also tasked government to move quickly to address the current state of insecurity across the country.
Also, delivering his keynote address at the summit, former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Dessalegn Boshe, called on the federal government to prioritise its goals and concentrate on area of competitive advantage.
He said to achieve rapid economic growth, the country must commit to agriculture industrialisation and purse strong international partnership as well as pursue an all-inclusive tax revenue.
He said Nigeria should also improve on implementation of policies, adding that the country’s blueprint on industrial parks had been deployed in Ethiopia with outstanding results while Nigeria is yet to implement same policy.
