The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) says it is set to engage the Federal Government on the reforms so far implemented by President Bola Tinubu-led administration, to assess their impact on the economy and organised businesses.
Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, the director-general of NECA, disclosed this during an interaction with journalists in Lagos, on Wednesday.
The engagement, according to Oyerinde, would be via the NECA annual Employers’ Summit, whose theme this year is: “Economic Renaissance: Harnessing Government Reforms and Private Sector Agility.”
The summit will examine the government’s economic policies, the reforms so far implemented, especially the fuel subsidy removal, naira floating, taxes, the business environment, and their impact on job creation and economic sustainability.
Oyerinde said critical players in the public and private would gather between June 25 and 26 at the Abuja Continental Hotel to dissect these issues.
“The summit will not only interrogate those reforms but also deepen or share the nexus between the reforms and the private sector.
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“Also, it is on how the government can leverage the agility of the private sector to navigate through these reforms and achieve the desired outcomes.
“This is a fundamental summit, which time has come to play a major role in the context of the growth of the private sector, economy, and competitiveness of businesses”.
Also speaking, Olumuyiwa Adebayo, the chair of the planned summit, said that some of the goals of the summit would include fostering dialogue.
“In supporting government, it means we need to support them in policies, call it to order when we need to do so and this is always through advocacy.
“We believe that sharing innovative practices is key between the private sector and government officials.
“This is because whatever policy we have is only going to be implemented by the private sector as the case may be because it is the engine room for any economy around the world,” he observed.
Victoria Uwadoka, the co-chair, said that there must be effective communication and collaboration between the government and private sector for development.
“We want to work together to develop strategies that will drive economic growth.
“Through this summit, we need to reinforce our role as the private sector as the engine of national development.
“We believe that the outcome from this engagement as we have done in other years will be driven through the government, but we will continue the conversation.
“This is the beginning of a dialogue; this is what the summit is,” she said.
