The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has backed the World Bank’s recommendation for swift, comprehensive economic changes. The group promoted including the private sector in the creation of important economic policies.
The employers’ group claimed that although the government and some of its agencies occasionally assume an all-knowing role, they must include the private sector in the creation, execution, and evaluation of policies.
According to the World Bank’s recently released Nigeria Country Economic Memorandum (CEM), the country saw strong growth from 2000 to 2010 but lost steam after the economic reforms that supported the growth were softened in the decade that followed. The world bank demanded swift, comprehensive reforms to attain sustainable.
Additionally, it urged the government to establish legal frameworks that would empower the private sector to assume leadership positions and make long-term investments in human resources.
Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, the director general of NECA, lamented that the nation was facing enormous challenges, most of which were self-inflicted. He urged the current and following administrations to investigate policy options as suggested and adopt a more robust and inclusive strategy, focusing not only on the diversification of the economy but also urgent fiscal structure reform to reflect fiscal federalism and encourage healthy competition.
The NECA boss stated that the next government must deliberately try to avoid the impulse to borrow more given that the federal government’s debt has surpassed the N44 trillion mark and that state governments have been borrowing unrestrainedly.
He suggested that the incoming administration should set up an accountability structure that lowers the cost of running the country.
