THE Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) have set an economic agenda for the incoming administration of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, urging him to develop the economy to guarantee shred prosperity for the citizens.
NESG harps on 4 critical themes
The Chief Executive Officer of NESG, Mr. Laoye Jaiyeola, who spoke through the Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Tayo Aduloju, in a Special Report made available to the Nigerian Tribune said the economic agenda being set for the incoming administration would be based on shared prosperity, and anchored on four critical themes.
He said, “In a bid to proffer lasting solutions and rewrite Nigeria’s narrative, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), in its 2023 Macroeconomic Outlook report, proposed an implementable Shared Prosperity Agenda (SPA) tailored to the nation’s specific needs”.
The SPA, he added “encapsulates a comprehensive, systemic and broad spectrum of concepts, views, and philosophies that captures existing socioeconomic context, distinctive circumstances and envisions a future for the economy by achieving specific developmental goals”.
Mr. Jaiyeola noted that “in the domesticated SPA for Nigeria, as proposed by the NESG, Shared Prosperity defines a situation or state where every Nigerian has a decent standard of living measured by equitable access to economic opportunities, a low unemployment rate, high-quality education and healthcare, and the protection of lives and properties.
“As a complex and multifaceted challenge, Shared Prosperity in Nigeria requires a comprehensive and structured approach. Despite Nigeria’s enormous potential, given its large population and abundant natural resources, which offers the citizens the possibility of immense prosperity, achieving shared prosperity could be a daunting task.
“Thus, to achieve shared prosperity in Nigeria, the SPA framework relies on two core objectives – a competitive and sustainable economy & economic prosperity for all, 12 guiding principles, four strategic thrusts, eight enablers, and 24 measurable targets”.
To leapfrog SPA in Nigeria, the NESG has espoused crucial and immediate action points in four critical themes, including market reforms, education, functional social programmes and Broad-based sectoral growth.
EDUCATION:
“Education is critical to human capital development and achieving shared prosperity in Nigeria because it fosters economic growth and development. With Nigeria’s population currently above 200 million, quality education will essentially raise the average standard of living, develop a well-skilled youth population and workforce, and eventually bridge the knowledge and brain drain gap in human capital development.
“Over time, Nigeria’s education sector has continued to operate at a sub-optimal level due to low investment, among other issues. Specifically, in 2021, education accounted for 8.5 percent of the FGN total budget and in 2023, the proposed budgetary allocation for the sector was raised to 10 percent, which is still below the UNESCO 25 percent benchmark. Achieving shared prosperity in Nigeria would therefore require gradual boosting of its annual expenditure efficiency and strategically devoting additional resources to the education sector.
“No nation has achieved inclusive growth without a functioning educational system that provides quality education. The NESG report on Education: An Imperative Tool for Achieving Shared Prosperity in Nigeria highlights four challenges in the education sector and proffers viable recommendations on how to jump-start the SPA through quality education”.
FUNCTIONAL SOCIAL PROGRAMMES:
“Closely linked with the drive for quality education is Functional social protection programme. Poverty and inequality are related to low literacy rates in Nigeria, and it has been observed that food insecurity is one of the causes of the prevalent out-of-school children crisis.
“Functional social protection programmes are public measures that provide benefits to guarantee income security and access to essential healthcare, such as unemployment insurance and other contributory and tax financed schemes.
“For Nigeria, adequate social protection programmes such as social insurance, social assistance and labour market policies will guarantee income security, social security and other social benefits to the poor and individuals facing social and economic risks. Remarkably, successive administrations in Nigeria established several social protection programmes, most of which yielded little success due to low scale and coverage limit, high financial exclusion, lack of an updated database for beneficiaries, corruption, and inconsistency, among other challenges. Establishing robust and functional social protection programmes across all sectors in Nigeria will reduce poverty and inequality and promote inclusive growth, creating shared prosperity”.
BROAD-BASED SECTORAL GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVITY:
”Huge investment in the education sector and robust social protection programmes will improve Nigeria’s socio-economic indicators, increasing the overall contribution of human capital to economic growth in the long run. Beyond economic growth, economic transformation, broad-based growth and improved productivity across all economic sectors are drivers of growth in job opportunities and poverty reduction.
“Furthermore, broad-based sectoral growth will hasten SPA by creating new economic activities that provide new sources of wealth for all Nigerians and improve the existing productive structure of the economy.
“In the last decade (2015-2022), the country’s economy has grown by an annualized 2.6 percent in real GDP despite two recessions. Over the past four decades, the GDP share of the industrial sector has declined from 60.1 percent in 1981 to 19 percent in 2022. This poor performance resulted from low growth and productivity, excessive reliance on few sectors and the vulnerability of the country’s productivity to internal and external shocks.
“Nigerian’s socioeconomic conditions and living standards will be improved by enhancing access to opportunity through implementing growth-promoting policies across all productive and non-productive sectors.
Mr. Jaiyeola explained that “The NESG report on Building a Stairway to a Shared Prosperity for all Nigerians provided a simplified roadmap to bolstering and diversifying the Nigerian economy through broad-based sectoral growth and productivity”.
FUNCTIONAL MARKET REFORMS:
”High and sustainable inclusive economic growth is only possible with a functioning market system highlights the need for market reforms that guarantee the unrestricted flow of economic activity across the supply chain so businesses can thrive regardless of size, industry, or origin. In addition, functional market reforms create viable avenues for the government to efficiently and effectively generate tax revenue and optimize the use of such revenue to provide public goods and basic amenities that could foster productivity.
“A Functional market system in Nigeria drives efficient and cost-effective production and service delivery across sectors of the economy, guarantees sustainable employment for the working age group, and creates business opportunities, competitive advantages and many more economic benefits required to achieve shared prosperity. In a vicious cycle pattern, in turn, the government will make extra income through a structured tax system and external trade surplus, among other profitable outcomes, which will eventually support the country’s functional social nets, education sector and all other sectors of the economy. The NESG’s report on Market Reforms for Shared Prosperity in Nigeria: Lessons from China growth Miracle provides a detailed narrative on the issues”.
The Chief Executive Officer highlighted that “the four NESG mini-reports on the critical themes for SPA hinted above are interconnected and should not be implemented in isolation. The integration of these four themes will improve the living standards of all Nigerians if the recommendations proffered are tenaciously implemented”.
Delving into the background, Mr. Jaiyeola pointed out that the Nigerian economy narrative is summarised by economic growth that does not translate into an improved standard of living for its citizens.
“In this regard, unemployment and poverty have been rising amidst economic growth, leading to high-income disparity. This situation is a fallout of skewed sectors’ performance in favour of sectors that contribute less than 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), macroeconomic instability and institutional deficiencies, amongst others.
“Additionally, recent data released by the NBS showed that 62.9 percent (133 million) of its population is estimated to live in multidimensional poverty. Therefore, there is a dire need for shared prosperity in Nigeria”, he stated.
LCCI calls for sustained targeted interventions in agric, manufacturing, export, infrastructure
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called for sustained targeted interventions in selected sectors, such as: agriculture, manufacturing, export and infrastructure, while also tackling insecurity, to enable it positively impact the nation’s economy.
The Chamber also wants the incoming government to keep track of plans to tackle the menace of oil theft, to boost oil exports and earn more foreign exchange.
In a statement signed by its president, Dr Michael Olawale-Cole, the Chamber called on the incoming administration to intensify ongoing efforts at combating the cartel involved in oil theft, noting that the nation would have made huge economic gains if those efforts, being currently embarked upon by the outgoing government, had commenced earlier.
On the highly controversial issue of fuel subsidies removal, the Chamber noted that though the action might aggravate inflation in the short term, it however sees it as one of the best economic decisions to reduce the nation’s unsustainable debts and widespread corruption in that sector.
Besides, removal of fuel subsidies would spur investments in domestic refining and petrochemicals and create a significant value chain for the various stakeholders, it argued.
“It will also release over N3 trillion per annum for social spending as well as create domestic high- valued jobs, rather than subsidising jobs in other countries at the expense of ours,” it stated.
The Chamber, however, advised the incoming government to roll out appropriate cushioning or palliative policies and measures before the fuel subsidy removal is eventually effected.
It would also want the incoming government to take cognisance of the socio-economic implications, of fuel subsidies removal, especially with unemployment at the unwholesome rate of about 40 per cent.
Another of the Chamber’s demands from the incoming national government is continuous improvement of electricity supply, and a resolution of all issues, regarding Discos’ profitability, consumption costs and poor generation and national grid collapse.
The body will also want the incoming government to work on the nation’s infrastructure, for the benefit of the organized private sector.
It attributed the rising cost of logistics to the poor state of the nation’s roads and the lack of connectivity amongst farms, factories, and markets.
The Chamber, therefore, counseled the incoming government to adopt the model used by the outgoing government in funding the Second Niger Bridge, a key national infrastructure, with immense socio-economic benefits for the contiguous states and the entire nation.
“The project was funded through the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), created by President Muhammadu Buhari, and managed by the NSIA, (Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority). LCCI wants to see more of such developments for the benefit of the Organised Private Sector (OPS),” it stated.
The Chamber also called on the government-in-waiting to support the nation’s manufacturers, with subsidized input and more allocation of forex for importation of critical inputs, so as to reduce the shocks from disruptions to supply chains for raw materials.
New administration should be transparent, accountable, responsible —CITN
In a telephone interview with Nigerian Tribune, President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Mr Adesina Adedayo, proposed a three-point agenda of Transparency, Accountability and Responsibility (TAR) for the incoming administration.
According to him, Nigeria would record progress if the incoming administration could practice transparency, accountability and responsibility because every problem in the country could be traced to one of the three.
His words: “Those three are the parameters to measure any administration. Are they transparent, accountable, and are they responsible?
“We are making money but where is the money going? The new government should focus on these three.
“We are a social creation and the issue of revenue is a social contract. Let the citizens do their job, let the government do theirs because it is a social contract.”
He said recommendations are no longer based on long essays that would end up not being implemented.
He said the administration, for instance, should ensure that if a contract is to be given, there is responsible tendering and responsible procurement process.
“When you put it against one thousand and one criteria, it will be all about Transparency, Accountability and Responsibility while we keep improving on other areas. We can equally copy what others are doing well and apply them. This way, no one will be talking about fighting corruption.”
According to Adesina, the new administration should bring into the consciousness of every Nigerian that the country has grown beyond ethnic and religious politics. Media practitioners, he added, also have a role to play. They are supposed to change the narrative and let people realize that Nigeria has gone beyond playing ethnic politics, or bringing religion into governance.
He said a typical family in Nigeria marries from one or two places other than their tribe/state.
The new administration should now focus on what matters in the Nigerian context, he advised.
“As long as you believe in these three values you’re my leader. You might even be an atheist. I don’t care. I don’t insist on a Christian doctor in the hospital, I don’t know who flies my plane when I travel, life has gone beyond these things we talk about.
“Look at what we spend in the medical sector and what India is taking from us in medicine? Or the fact that our incoming went to rest abroad. Why can’t he go to Obudu cattle ranch? It’s a security problem.
“If you want to rule over the people, you need to start asking what are the problems of the people. We need to look beyond the ethnic /tribalism perspective,” Adesina emphasized.
On brain drain syndrome and the huge amount of money being spent on education and medicals abroad, he said the country needs to look at the basic things.
For example, he said, Nigerians spend huge amounts of money seeking medical attention in India.
“Nigeria loses at least $1.5bn every year to medical tourism, according to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). Of this figure, India accounts for more than half. In essence, Nigerians with health challenges end up travelling to India, the Middle East, Europe, and other far-flung places to get care when they should receive treatment within the country. When this happens, patients also incur associated costs for logistics, accommodation, caregivers, and emotional support systems.”
So, he called on the incoming administration to imbibe the principle of transparency, accountability and responsibility to make Nigeria a better country.
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