A Development Economist, Dr Chiwuike Uba, says Nigeria will achieve continuous economic growth when there is a cut in the cost of governance.
According to him, there will also be economic growth if duplication of projects between tiers of government is stopped.
Uba, who is the Board Chairman of Amaka Chiwuike-Uba Foundation (ACUF), spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Enugu.
The economist spoke on citizens-government partnership to ease recession and to build resilient and sustainable economy that can stand global financial shock including the current COVID-19 pandemic global economic shock.
“Firstly, we need commitment and sacrifice of political leaders to quickly move out of recession by cutting cost of governance and stoppage of duplication of projects between tiers of government that currently leads to wastages.
“Citizens can only become part of this process, if and only if, they see the commitment and sacrifices of those in government.
“Nigeria needs everybody to salvage the economy, going forward.
“Also, Education and training are important aspects of economic recovery and resilience.
“To this end, it is important to increase education funding to power the future, as universities and other institutions begin to build linkages with the industries and other private sector organizations,’’ he said.
Uba called on all tiers of government to consider infrastructure financing through the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) vehicle to save cost and easily get the people, locals, take ownership and protect the built infrastructure in the future.
He noted that building a resilient economy required real investment in key infrastructures within health, education, and other key economic and social sectors.
The economist said: “Also, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s funding to targeted sectors need to be deepened.
“Instead of giving small amounts of money as grants/soft loans to millions of Nigerians, it is important to identify, at least, two key businesses/entrepreneurs, with the capacity to scale up and employ more people in each state and fund their businesses.
“For example, 72 big and solid corporations are better than the millions of businesses funded by the CBN without any impact on the economy. Economic resilience requires big and bold decisions.
“States are the main economic drivers. It is, therefore, important to use the states as economic building blocks to build a stronger and more resilient national economy.
“The governments need to engage in more targeted economic development, which involves conducting a reality-based assessment of a state’s strengths and potentials to determine the costs and benefits of interventions’’.
He noted that unemployment and lack of education remained major drivers of insecurity.
“Technology and innovation-based economic development are needed to diversify the economy.
“However, vertical and horizontal communication, collaboration, and consultation between different levels of national and sub-national governments on one hand, and between the MDAs, on the other hand, are needed,’’ he said. (NAN)