NESG says Nigeria Needs Serious Reforms to Engender Growth

Niyi Yusuf, chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) yesterday said Nigeria needs serious reforms to become a multi-trillion dollar economy.

Mr Yusuf disclosed this during his opening remarks at the 29th Nigerian Economic Summit Group on Monday.

“Achieving a multi-trillion dollar economy will require a paradigm shift, big, bold actions, tough choices and significant sacrifices by all of us,” Mr Yusuf said.

He said that the country stands at a critical point in its history, and the people’s challenges demand immediate, concerted efforts while noting the need for the parties involved to act immediately with a shared sense of urgency.

“We know a multi-trillion dollar economy is viable within a decade of serious reform, consistent economic action and deliberate institutional reforms.”

He explained that the nation needs a macroeconomic stabilisation programme supported by an aggressively scaled national security effort to halt all forms of syndicated and organised crime around crude oil and solid minerals and also a made-in-Nigeria agenda.

There is also need for urgent investment and a national job creation plan that drives the creation of huge volume of high-quality jobs, among other reforms.

“This year’s summit has been calibrated as a burning platform to answer the question of the essential pillars of economic transformation that would get us to the future envisaged by the government.

“The need for urgent strategic shifts that impact the ease and cost of doing business within a relatively short period is a matter of existential threat to the survival of enterprises and entrepreneurs.

“The low access to and increasing cost of FX, high cost of inventory, imported inputs, and operations, coupled with the diversity of taxes, continue to erode business balance sheets, with resultant contraction in production and employment, which the conference will have discourse on to address,” he said.

Mr Yusuf added that large firms are battling low-capacity utilisation, while medium, small and micro-enterprises grapple with multidimensional complexities. These poor economic outcomes have created worsening social conditions that cannot be taken for granted, he added.