Buhari to dialogue on Corruption, Insecurity at Nigerian Economic Summit

President Buhari is expected to lead a live presidential policy dialogue, focusing mainly on tracking corruption,, insecurity and institutionalizing Accountability at the forth coming 21st series of the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#21), organizers of the event said on Wednesday.

The Dialogue will focus on the strategic elements required to make Nigeria globally competitive, and coming at a time Nigeria fell seven places to 127th position (out of 144 countries) on the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report due largely to weakened public finances, weak institutions, corruption, dire security situation, weak infrastructure as well as high youth unemployment rate.

Addressing a press conference on the Summit which begins on October 13 in Abuja, Bassey Akpanyung, Secretary, National Planning Commission said the theme of the Summit, “Tough Choices: Achieving Competitiveness, Inclusive Growth and Sustainability” aligns with President Buhari’s change agenda and the Medium Term Successor Strategic Plan, 2016-2020 which focuses on addressing unemployment, fighting corruption insecurity, among others.

Akpanyung argued that this is so considering the fact that, Nigeria continue to trend downward on measures of relative competitiveness and moreso, since experience has shown that issues on unemployment, insecurity and other critical economic challenges that Nigeria faces cannot be tackled effectively without addressing those issues that have kept Nigeria low on the index.

He said that their expectations are that the summit will come up with measurable outcomes on how best to achieve competitiveness and inclusive growth in a sustainable manner.

“This will also be crucial in defining the agenda that will help in making Nigeria’s socio-economic environment globally competitive,” he stated.

He said that the Summit has been designed to elicit deeper dialogue on how best to make tough choices, considering the present global economic realities which government needs to deal with.

“In particular, the continuous decline in oil prices resulting in reduction in government revenues, insurgency in some parts of the country and rising unemployment rate, especially among the youths have made it imperative for the government to to start thinking outside the box on a post oil economy,” the Secretary added.

Nigerian Economic Summit, an annual dialogue event jointly convened by the National Planning Commission, representing the public sector and the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), representing the private sector is the largest annual economic forum for policy making.

Akpanyung said that outcomes of the past 20 summits have helped in influencing policies in Nigeria, especially those of last year’s event which the ministry of education and other relevant MDAs are currently implementing according to how it relates to them.

He also noted that President Buhari will, declare open, the Summit, which hopes to assemble up to 1,500 participants.

The organizers expect key outcomes to include specific recommendations on how to create jobs, dismantle the pillars of corruption, establish and build upon pillars of sustainable growth and development, as well as align home-grown long-term development agenda with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), which will take effect in January, 2016.

 

Onyinye Nwachukwu