NESG tasks govt to tackle sluggish economic growth

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has said that for the country to achieve economic and social inclusion, government must first tackle the current sluggish economic growth in the country.

According to NESG, the nation’s economic recovery remained fragile as the Gross Domestic Product growth rate declined from 1.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 to 1.5 per cent in the second quarter.

“It improved to 1.8 per cent in the third quarter. On a sectoral level, 12 out of the 46 activity sectors recorded negative growth in Q3, an increase from 10 sectors in Q1.”

The group’s concern was raised in its Macroeconomic Outlook, titled ‘Steering Nigeria through the inclusive growth pathway: What strategy should government adopt?’

NESG Chief Executive Officer, Mr ’Laoye Jaiyeola, noted in the report that 2019 would come with uncertainties, security concerns and new challenges for policymakers being an election year.

Read also: FG begins payment of NDDC’s N1.3tn outstanding funds

“But it also presents an opportunity for the Nigerian government to make the radical changes and reforms that will address the pertinent economic challenges facing the country. In 2019 and beyond, the government of Nigeria at all levels must exercise the political will to drive the country’s development process,” he added.

The group further noted that a critical pillar of inclusive growth is achieving broad-based economic growth that leads to a significant reduction in unemployment, poverty rates and improvement in other social and economic indicators.

“The idea behind the broad-based growth concept is to attain quality economic growth, which is driven by several critical sectors of the economy. Nigeria’s post-recession growth pattern is still skewed towards few sectors, showing the limited capacity of the economy to create jobs and reduce poverty, NESG said.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now