How Nigeria can achieve economic growth–Expert

An Investment Consultant, Dr Vincent Nwani, says Nigeria can achieve the desired economic growth if government can address the various threats prevalent in the country.

He spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of a media parley organised by First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in Ibadan on Thursday.

NAN reports that the event was the sixth in the series organised by FCMB across the country.

Nwani identified insecurity, late appointment of officials, bad behaviour, poverty and population growth as some of the threats to national growth.

“Nigeria is under all forms of attacks that impact its growth. The nation’s growth is so weak at 2.0 percent when we should be desiring six to 10 percent growth.

“The threats to this growth are both external and internal. The external threat is the oil market price.

” The price of oil per barrel now is a threat to the nation’s budget and revenue.

” There is also the recent 9.6 billion dollars judgement debt slammed on the country.

” If the country pays this amount in full sum, it is going to affect our foreign exchange, foreign reserve and will cause inflation,” he said.

He said that the internal threats affecting the country’s economic growth included late appointment of government officials and technology

“We have seen a situation where governance structure and intentions are not well drilled down. For instance, the ministers were appointed last week, which is three months after the administration took off.

“This is not good news for investors both local and domestic. We have also seen government reacting in different ways to ensure that the economy stands, ” he said.

He urged government to pay more attention to security, saying nobody could do business in any society without adequate security.

The investment expert also urged government to address the issue of epileptic power supply and allow Nigerians to have easy access to the internet.

“Regulators should begin to be more proactive in their regulations. When they see what will happen in the next five to 10 years, they should begin to attend to it immediately.

“It is about technology. It is about innovation and it is about ICT. But right now, it is difficult to see that something is about to change.

” The maximum we are expecting now is for the status quo to be maintained,” he said.

Nwani also urged media practitioners to go further than the traditional story writing by identifying possible threats and solutions that could affect national growth.

Mr Louis Ibe, FCMB Head of Media Relations, urged media practitioners to be more proactive, promising to sustain the current mutual relationship.

Earlier, Mr Diran Olojo, FCMB Group Head (Corporate Affairs) and Mr Adelaja Adeleye, FCMB Regional Head(South West), said that the parley was initiated to acquaint media practitioners with developments in the banking and economic sector.

The duo, in their separate remarks, commended media practitioners for their usual cooperation, saying the bank would always sustain the relationship with them.

NAN reports that the parley was attended by media practitioners from across the South West states.

-NAN