Most countries in Africa, including Nigeria are struggling to catch up with fast paced development in the rest of the world. This has been daunting with increase in poverty level in spite of the availability of the elements that can trigger exponential growth in Nigeria.
The quest therefore to unlock the potentials, deal with poor enabling environment and achieve exponential development necessitated the gathering of best minds recently under the auspices of Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) Alumni Biennial Lecture who cited working models, processes, systems and frameworks that are also necessary to ramp up Nigeria’s economy.
Leading the discussion, Ndubuisi Ekekwe, an alumnus of FUTO and Chairman of Famisco Group was of strong opinion that for Nigeria to experience exponential economic system, it must be a nation that creates knowledge for national development.
To build capabilities, competencies and invest in R&D for the future, Ekekwe suggested a $10 billion yearly for Nigerian university system but said this money does not necessarily have to be provided by government. Citing examples of other countries, especially USA, he advocated a review of Nigeria’s tax code which will allow individuals to enjoy tax break for donating money to universities for knowledge building and R&D.
“In America and Western Europe, there is clever tax system that stimulates rich people to give money to schools because the more money they give; they are offsetting their tax obligation in other places. Nigeria does not have that system because when a rich man donates money to school, he is Father Christmas. If there is such tax policy, people will inject capital into university system which will make universities competitive”.
Ekekwe who specialised in Microelectronics and Medical Robotics Engineering also underscored protection of intellectual property as a tool to achieve exponential economic growth. “In an economy where there is rule of law and respect for intellectual property, innovators will be encouraged to innovate more, commercialise and benefit from them”
He said people want to build things and profit from them but they will stop to innovate when they don’t have confidence that the legal system will protect their innovations. “The propensity that someone can invest all his resources for an idea and somebody else steals it yet nothing happens to the pirate does not encourage the innovator to do great things”
On poverty reduction, Ekekwe, a professor who writes in the Harvard Business Review said Nigeria needs to focus on agriculture. If 65% of people that work in Nigeria earn their income through agriculture and if they double their earning power by improving their yield, then poverty level estimated to be over 45 % of Nigeria’s 198 million population will be reduced by 37%, he said.
Ekekwe showed how China and USA that once had flat GDP growth over long period of time leveraged knowledge, technology; focus on agriculture and attention to education to ramp up their GDPs.
Also speaking, the chairman of the occasion, Henry Macauley, immediate past minister of Energy for Sierra Leone and former Sierra Leone High Commissioner to Nigeria said Nigeria is right now positioned to take advantage of its population and all the resources it has not only mineral but human resources which is huge.
In his view, National President of FUTO Alumni Association, Ndubuisi Chijioke said development deficit in most sectors is monumental that a progressive development will not get the country out of the quagmire except exponential development.
In his speech, VC of FUTO, Francis Eze said the topic of the lecture was apt as markets redouble growth through innovative and productive thinking. “As Nigeria’s population grows, there is the need to fast track technologies, innovations on how we grow crops, add value and invent technologies to fight hunger”
The lecture was sixth in the series and Collins Opara, Chairman Lagos chapter of FUTO said the objective of the programmes is to create an integrated and economic development approach.
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