31st October, 2013
Statements painting the Nigerian economy in bright colours despite the obvious hardship that pervades the land have been coming from the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Nigeria. Such reports that attempt to raise our optimism have been further trumpeted by Nigeria’s Information Minister, Labaran Maku, on several occasions whenever the opportunity presented itself. But the stark reality remains that Nigeria’s economic growth only looks good on paper, with the real benefits that accompany growth still missing in the lives of average Nigerians.
As economic growth is largely driven by capital-intensive sectors, it has not translated into advancement of the real sector, nor adequate job creation in Nigeria. The significant level of economic growth the country has attained as being bandied about by the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, cannot alter the fact that inflation has continued to grow for the past ten years at 10 percent annually.
Currently, Nigeria’s Human Development Index is nothing to cheer about. Attempts at convincing the majority of Nigerians that the economy is among the fastest growing in the world through mere unrealistic statistics has accomplished little. The average Nigerian knows that the economy is not yet moving in the right direction. The majority of Nigerians struggling to survive on a daily basis in the face of the sky-rocketing inflation and weakening naira consider the hype from government about economic growth as mere propaganda.
Reports emanating from the Finance Ministry rate Nigeria among the seven fastest growing economies of the world. It is ranked with countries posting rates in excess of six percent growth rate yearly. With the trend the country is expected to be in the same league with seven of the fastest growing economies in the world over the next five years with other countries including Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. But such lofty projections are still paper-based and require a lot of commitment from government. The economies of the countries with which Nigeria is being grouped, compared and assessed are already putting structures in place to facilitate considerable growth in the very near future. Nigeria’s deficiency in this respect must be aggressively tackled to save the country from looming economic hopelessness and disaster.
While those aforementioned economies are committed to driving growth through visible, concerted efforts to improve the environment in which business and investors operate, the Nigerian government does the contrary. And while reports also support the claim that 70 percent of African countries have improved in overall governance quality since 2007, nothing on ground confirms this as applicable in the real sense concerning the Nigerian situation. Political stability which these countries now thrive on is applicable in Nigeria, but with no significant benefits to show for it.
Nigeria boasts of human and natural resources that make it the envy of other African countries, and opportunities for progress abound for the leadership to push it to its deserved position as the continent’s economic powerhouse. Economic growth should be accompanied by a structural change of the Nigerian economy through diversification into the non-oil sector beyond present levels. This would help to expand the sources of growth, making it broad-based. Further development of agriculture, manufacturing and services would also boost growth in real terms creating employment and reducing the embarrassing poverty that has ravaged this country.