A former President of Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr Goodie Ibru, has urged the Federal Government to ensure a national economic policy framework strategically targeted at making the country more globally competitive.
Ibru made the call at the 2022 Distinguished Personality Lecture Series organised by Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo on Thursday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the lecture’s theme was: “Imperatives of a 21st Century Nigerian Economy: An Entrepreneur’s Perspective”.
Ibru, who was the Guest Lecturer, said that the government at all levels needed to face up with the environmental sustainability challenge of phasing out fossil fuel and achieving zero net emission in a few decades.
“All stakeholders, especially business people, investors and entrepreneurs have a role to play to engage with government to improve the business environment.
“Nigeria is a nation in a hurry to develop, but she is also one in dire need of economic and political reforms.
“The current economic challenges the Nigerian economy is facing is large because of the slow pace of economic reform,” he said.
Ibru said that the current administration should be commended for several innovations it had brought to bear on the management of the budget cycle and maintenance of the January to December fiscal year.
“However, overall, the administration seems to have adopted an economic policy framework that does not give the pride of place to free-market forces in the marketplace.
“As a corollary, it has also been reluctant to put the private sector in the driver’s seat in the running of the economy.
“The Nigerian economy is currently characterised by price controls or a reluctance to allow market forces determine the prices of goods services in key sectors of the economy,” he said.
Ibru said that the nation must find a way of going around the bend in terms of taking critical and dispassionate decisions that would turn the economy around.
“There is an urgent need for government to provide the enabling environment or improve the environment for doing business in Nigeria.
“The Nigeria economy, despite its present challenges, presents huge opportunities for the discerning investor, local and foreign
“We must move away from the subsidy mentality, especially the subsidy of consumption, which is wasteful.
“LASU should set up a leading and advanced innovation hub and enterprise development centre that will be a reference point for other universities in Nigeria and across Africa,” he said.
In her opening remarks, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, Vice-Chancellor, LASU, said that new and growing businesses represent the principal sources of job creation and innovation activity in an economy.
Olatunji-Bello said that the 21st-century Nigerian economy would grow with a stream of innovative ideas and technological intervention if entrepreneurs would collaborate and break some rules or take risks.
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