WAIFEM, NIM canvass swift implementation of policies
Prof. Akpan H. Ekpo, Director-General of West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management
West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), and the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) Chartered, have stressed the need for government to fast-track the implementation of its economic and fiscal policies, to reduce poverty and enhance the standard of living of citizens.
Besides, they said it is the capital component of government expenditure that would enhance growth and help to exist recession, while urging government to formulate policies that will encourage the private sector to invest in the economy.
Speaking at the yearly management lecture of NIM in Lagos on Tuesday, the Director General, WAIFEM, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, said recession affects both the supply and demand side of the economy.
“In Nigerian where sub-national governments owe salaries and allowances to workers for almost eight months, stimulating aggregate demand by paying the workers would fast-track recovery,” Ekpo said.
He said some policies might be specific and directed at solving some problems. Intervention of government would, therefore, consider programmes and strategies that would implement and sustain the policy.
“Economic policy of government ensures equity, fairness and distribution so as to narrow income inequality. It is economic policy of government that addresses the issues of unemployment, health, education, gender equality, security and poverty reduction,” he said.
He noted that due to the power of government, the economy is more often public sector led while the private sector is seen as the engine of growth.His words: “It is the implementation of the economic policy of government that results in economic development. An economy may grow but not developed.”
Ekpo also described the implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) as inconsistent, considering the internal workings of the model used.Earlier in his remarks, the President and Chairman of Council, Prof Munzali Jibril, noted that the formulation of right and appropriate economic policies has never been the problem of successive Nigerian governments, as the nation is not in short of economic policy formulators.
He however said that what Nigeria needed is an urgent solution to the many governance challenges besetting it, which are threatening its quest to become an economic power bloc that will be taken seriously amongst the comity of nations.
Jibril argued that bridging the gap between putting the right policies in place, and proper implementation has been the bane of Nigeria’s meaningful development.According to him, persons, either in government or in corporate world, who by omission or commission, through deliberate actions or inactions thwart government’s effort to do the right thing owing to some pecuniary interests, compound the recurring problem of economic policy implementation.
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