Nigerian Economic Summit calls for urgent response to economic challenges

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has said the country needs to adopt a different approach with a profound sense of urgency to find workable measures to achieve economic growth and national security.

Chairman of the NESG, Asue Ighodalo, said governments at all levels must intensify efforts to address the challenges of kidnapping, theft and other social vices, to pave the way for economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction.

Ighodalo said this during the inauguration of the joint planning committee for the 27th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) with the theme ‘Securing our future: the fierce urgency of now.

While lamenting the present state of the economy, vis-a-vis increasing unemployment, pervasive insecurity, and dwindling investments in critical sectors, the NESG boss said the time was ripe to question the path for securing a long-term future for the country, one that guarantees citizen’s right to economic, social, political, environmental and physical safety.

He said the summit would present a platform for stakeholders to highlight Nigeria’s core socio-economic vulnerabilities and the associated risks to come up with solutions that would alleviate the vulnerabilities while exploring potential opportunities and priorities that would also accelerate economic development.

He said the yearly, NES had been sustained by the public-private dialogue between the NESG, which represents the private sector and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, representing the public sector, stating that it is the foremost platform through which the Federal and State Governments engage with corporate leaders to discuss national and sub-national economic realities to co-create reform strategies critical for the advancement and reform of the Nigerian economy.

In his remark, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, who stated that Nigeria’s inflation rate was showing a downward trajectory despite the challenges faced globally, said the summit would provide a platform for effective partnership and strengthened relationships between both sectors.

He revealed that the government was on the verge of completing the medium and long-term national economic development plan, which will serve as a successor plan to the long-term national vision 20:2020.
He added that the Federal Executive Council would soon deliberate the conclusions and recommendations of the summit on.

Guardian/Hauwa Abu