The Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG has voiced its concern over the likely implementation problems of the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, though it lauded the objectives of the plan.
The Group also charged the Federal Government to intensify effort toward enhancing the ease of doing business in the country as this will have beneficial effect on the economy.
While reacting on the recently released ERGP, Chairman of NESG, Mr. Kyari Bukar said “We loud government’s initiative as Nigeria has never lacked good plan, but our concern is on the implementation of the plan. It is better to aim high than nothing. But one of the things I like about the plan is the objectives; it is very fantastic as it started on the three aspects of the things that this government is pursuing starting from tackling corruption, job creation and macroeconomic stability.
Continuing he said “The three broad objectives of the plan which are aimed at achieving the vision of the government is inclusive growth, restoring growth, investing in our people, and building a globally competitive economy. This is good. We have been in recession for some time, so having plan to restore growth is a nice one and investing in people to create job is in order. Also the ease of doing business is key, if we must be competitive. If we are serious and in all honesty about the ease of doing business the country would be far better. Government must quickly do that. I thank God that the Minister of Commerce and Investment is championing this course and pushing forward Nigeria will be far better.
“There is also the incompetence and capacity of the civil servants in our country.
In his reaction on the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of the government, the Chief Executive Officer, NESG, Mr. Laoye Jaiyeola said “We don’t react, we pro-react, and when there is need to talk, we talk and we do it very well. It is something all of us have talked about before now, that the government needs to have a well-coordinated and articulated plan that everybody should know about, whether on the fiscal policy side or monetary policy side. Everyone should own it. And so we are glad this has been put together. We have seen a three year plan, one of the things I am worried about is the ambition and aspiration I am proud about it. The major concern is the execution of the plan, the delay in its implementation matters. The problem is we delay a lot in moving things, both political and economic aspect.”
Continuing, Jaiyeola said “Consistency of the policy matters too; it is the focus at doing those things that matter. Look, the 2017 budget is yet to be approved, so all these things set us back. The economic growth rate plan is high, of course , we have said it that our forecast is that the economy will grow less than one per cent, about 0.5, but that can be reverse if things are moving well. Even the World Bank does reverse growth projection.”
On the sale of government’s asset, he said “When we talk about sale of assets, believe me it was part of the things we support at NESG. We have submitted our view to them long ago, our view is that If we can separate between NNPC as an operator and NNPC as an asset manager, Nigeria would be better. We believe strongly that with these assets, we can raise money from them and should not be too concern in borrowing money.”
On the floatation of the currency, he said “We believe in market determined rate. We want a market-driven economy, that’s what NESG stands for, while NESG stands for privatisation and liberalisation, So we want market forces to lead things the way they should. So, that means, we support it and we hope it is being done appropriately. It is one thing to have policy, and another thing to implement policy appropriately. Some of our challenges are those policies that are not well implemented and we should go back and implement them appropriately.”
