CIBN boss tasks government on continuity in policy implementation

For Nigeria to overcome its immediate economic challenges, there is need for continuity in policy and implementation from one government to the others, especially in the area of diversification.

President and Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Prof. Segun Ajibola, disclosed this at the 2016  yearly Dinner  and Dance of the Nigeria International Chamber of Commerce (ICCN) held in Lagos last Friday .

Ajibola, who spoke on the topic: “Impact of protective Policies on non-oil exports and imports – The Nigerian Experience (1986 to date)”, regretted that successive governments have abandoned polices of their predecessors without good course.

“It is no gainsaying the fact that governance is a continuum,” he said.

According to him, beyond the rhetoric, there is the need for government at all levels to show strong commitment to the diversification of the Nigerian economy from oil.

This, he said, would involve establishing a task force that would review other countries’ examples who had been in a similar situation like ours and leapfrog by learning from their experiences.

Ajibola also called on government to intensify efforts, through its protectionist policies and initiatives, to ensure that local industries are given the room to thrive as the menace of concerns such as smuggling and dumping of cheap imports are now more prevalent than ever.

According to him, it is clear that Nigeria has great potentials for diversification of its economy even though most of the policies targeted towards the achievement of this objective have not yielded the desired results over the years.

“Globally protective policies on exports and imports have favoured the developed economies more than the developing, structurally deficient ones. However, emerging economies of Africa, Asia and Latin America with the right policy-mix and political will to implement have also reaped good dividends from such protective policies and strategies,” he said.