Insecurity, poor policy implementation key challenges to Nigeria’s growth – ICSAN

Nigeria’s economy will continue to perform sluggishly in spite of enormous potentials until there is practical implementation of appropriate policies and insecurity which has driven farmers away from farmlands across the nation, especially in the north is tackled head on by top leaders, said Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administration (ICSAN).

Based on potentials, Internationally Monetary Fund, IMF in October this year predicted that Nigeria’s economy will grow by 2.6 percent in 2021, driven by a recovery in non-oil sectors and higher oil prices, and that the growth will inch up slightly to 2.7 percent in 2022 and remain at this level over the medium term but ICSAN said these projections are possible if the environment is right.

The President of the Institute, Taiwo Owokalade who spoke to journalists on the institute activities and national issues looked at the very slow economic growth and the subsequent increasing poverty and unemployment at 33.3 percent and advised Nigeria’s top leaders to concentrate on tackling insecurity and implementing appropriate policies to achieve some level of economic growth in 2022

“We should be laying emphasis on those challenges that are making Nigeria become unsecured and unproductive. Insecurity in the north and elsewhere needs to be tackled head long. Insecurity is really affecting the growth of Nigeria’s economy”, he said.

Owokalade whose institute preaches corporate governance in all establishments to grow the economy, cited the example of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) assistance to agricultural sector in the north which was having impact but regrets that some of the farmers have abandoned the farms on insecurity, a situation which has pushed prices of crops high.

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“Many youths who are farmers are migrating to other secure states because the insecurity in their areas has strongly affected them. Before now many of them are strong in to agricultural farming”.

Owokalade announced the institute’s plan to set up sectoral groups as one of the major initiatives to have a platform for members who are operating in various sectors of the economy to cross-ventilate ideas and also bring to bear the import of Corporate Governance best practices in all sectors.

On the Ikoyi collapsed building, he commended the establishment of the six-man investigative panel by the Lagos State government and strongly believed that the committee will not abdicate professionalism on the platter of political support. “We will wait for the report of the committee before further comment on the 21 storey building collapse,” he said.

He however commiserated with all Nigerians on the incident saying for any building that went down, the economy and the environment is affected and implication of people wanting to invest or even be tenants in such high rising building is jeopardized.