To ensure that Africa’s biggest economy quickly recovers from the social and economic fallouts from the Covid-19 pandemic, experts have emphasising the need to scale up multi-stakeholder partnerships between the public and private sectors.
One of such forums to air these views was a webinar organized by the Governance and Institutions Policy Commission (GIPC) of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), where speakers noted that beyond the initial response to the pandemic, the challenge now is how to establish sustainable public-private partnerships to support the government in restarting the economy and rebuilding societies.
They stated that the country has not suffered much from the pressure of the pandemic’s infectious rate but from the social and economic fallout following the virus outbreak.
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Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, founder, Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG) and co-chair, private sector during the session, said the country needs to change the emphasis of its public, private partnerships to those that can deliver on capacity, bring expertise and tools as well as technology to support the government to restart the economy and rebuild cities.
“We have continued to suffer on the economic and social side of the pandemic. We have had social unrest which can be linked to the trauma of the pandemic, and the unemployment indices have not been pleasing,” he said.
“What we need to do is to change the emphasis of our public, private partnerships to those that can deliver capacity on an enduring basis; those that can that can bring expertise and tools on an enduring basis, those that can bring technology to support government restart the economy and rebuilding societies,” he further said. “Globally, the public sector has leveraged on the capacity and capability of the private sector to restart their economies.”
He stated that GIPC leverages over 20 years of NESG work to create a focus and emphasis on governance and institutional reforms. He also revealed that they are working on several workstreams focused on strengthening partnerships between the public and private sectors.
Aig-Imoukhuede said that the pandemic has strained the government’s resources and had far-reaching effects on people worldwide.
He revealed that African countries have benefitted from the lowest infection rates worldwide and that Nigeria has coped well with the medical side but still struggles with the economic and social effects. Serious pandemics, as he explained, require multi-generational responses and should be approached as a marathon battle.
“The global response has seen the health industry getting engaged globally by governments and the private sector and coming to the fore with vaccines, and it’s not surprising that beyond the initial emergency response, the real issue lies on the economic and social side where we continue to suffer from social unrest which can be linked to the trauma of COVID-19 which ignited a grand nature of negative trends including double-digit inflation and unemployment,” Aig-Imoukhuede said.
He stated that the challenge is to have an effective broad-based public-private partnership with evidence-based data, which emphasizes capacity delivery, experience, tools, and technology to respond to economic and social challenges effectively. For him, it was important to scale up to multi-stakeholder partnerships between the public and private sector on the vulnerable groups and ensure proper strategic deliberations that give responsibilities to certain people in government.
Speaking also, Adeyemi Dipeolu, keynote speaker and special adviser to the Vice-President of Nigeria on Economic matters, said that it was clear that the pandemic presented several challenges, and all sectors of the economy need to work together to ameliorate the social, economic fallouts.
“No one thought we would be battling 3rd or 4th wave, and it shows we have a new normal, and we must use vaccinations and other health measures to tackle the virus while continuing with our lives,” he said.
The country has not suffered much from the pressure of the pandemic’s infectious rate but from the social and economic fallout following the virus outbreak
“Government and private sector can work together to provide information and guidance. Virtual and digital platforms came to the rescue, a situation with a key lesson that can tackle many of the developmental challenges through a robust adoption of digital technology,” he stated.
Dipeolu said that it has become clear that technology has to be used to strengthen accountability and bring people closer to the government, especially considering that the private sector rose to the occasion with tech-enabled solutions, provisions of facilities, and PPEs.
He said that in response to the economic fallout of the recession caused by the pandemic, the Federal Government responded with an Economic sustainability plan to save jobs, boost local production, and help businesses stay afloat and the process brought about an MSME support fund and a pool of data to guide policymaking as we advance.
He reiterated the need to look at other key areas of interventions, including cooperation to strengthen the civil service, which will lead to increased productivity, utilization of data protection tools, capacity building, and digitization.
Furthermore, Dipeolu stated that it was pertinent that Nigeria adapts and aligns with the 4th industrial revolution, as the country needs manufacturing to grow the economy faster. Also, the private sector must help shape the outcomes of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) agreement, revealing that there are existing opportunities for collaboration for the provision of facilities such as power, rail, roads, and broadband infrastructure.
In her opening remark, Wonu Adetayo, board member NESG and CEO Kainos Edge said that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been far-reaching.
“The experience has shown it is vital for the government to produce accurate, useful, and up to date information to people who will help inform decision-makers better and guide in the creation of effective policies,” she said.
According to her, reliable information from the government helped people make informed decisions about their daily routines, build public trust as well as enabled public authorities to act decisively to flatten the curve.
Adetayo also revealed that the pandemic has allowed the government to look at technology utilization, which was effectively utilized during the lockdown.
She noted that NESG hopes that strategic deliberations will produce outcomes that will facilitate much-needed engagement between the government and the private sector.
“Government has often lacked the financial and human resource capabilities to quickly and efficiently develop digital tools that can support people during a crisis,” she said.
“Therefore, building partnerships with private technology companies, social entrepreneurs, or other national and international organizations, can represent an effective way for Government to make use of existing and new technologies to meet the needs of people and soften the impact of the crisis on their lives,” she added.
During the panel session, Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede, director, Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG), said that the AIG signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), and has been deliberating and contributing to the development and growth of the service.
She reiterated the need for Private sector entities to collaborate and bring their resources to bear in the nation’s development.
Ofovwe revealed that AIG is actively engaged in building capacity in the workforce through the AIG scholarships for individuals working or interested in working in the public sector.
She said the organisation has to date, sponsored 27 individuals to the Blavatnik School of Government of the University of Oxford. She also stated that scholarships valued at £11,500 are to be provided to 50 public servants each of directorate level in the civil service to help provide effective training on running the civil service in the present day.
Also, Emmanuel C. Meribole, permanent secretary, SPSO, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, said that at the beginning of the pandemic, the private sector collaborated with civil service from awareness creation, logistics support, and providing knowledge and skills that have necessitated a change in approach to work.
He revealed that Standard Operating Procedures are being developed in the office of the Head of Service of the federation with support from the African Initiative for Governance to help digitize the civil service and make it more professional.
Meribole revealed six pillars in the plan to make the civil service more effective, including capacity building, performance management, Integrated personnel Payroll system, Digitization of government practices, and staff welfare, amongst others.
Akin Soetan of the office of the Vice President said that gains had been made in the approach to work. Still, given the scale of the challenges of the pandemic, there is an urgency to shore up the capabilities of the public sector to respond.
He reiterated the need for collaboration between government and the private sector, which should be aimed at supporting machinery for creating an enabling environment for Nigerians to thrive, stating that the pandemic has brought to the fore the need to be inclusive and address the concerns of all sections of the population, particularly the vulnerable groups.
