Obaseki urges review of nation’s economic policies to create jobs, drive growth

Comprehensive review of the nation’s current economic policies is needed to ensure competitive economy that encourages production and discourages importation.

Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, who stated this, noted that the step was necessary to create job opportunities and place the country on the path of sustainable economic growth and development.

The governor spoke while addressing participants at the South-South Human Capital Development Regional Conference, with the theme, “Accelerating HCD in the South-South,” held at the Government House, Benin City.

The Conference focused on three key areas that enhance human capital development, including education, health/nutrition and labour force participation.

Obaseki said: “Without a national economic policy to foster job creation, even with enough trained labour force from the states, the scarcity of jobs will continually bedevil the nation.”

“We cannot develop without developing the capacity of our people. If you have a healthy population and train them well, you will have a good labour force. This is one area where we need a responsible nationally-managed economy because it’s our national economic policies that create the jobs.

“Unless we begin to think and seriously change our economic policies, the issues of job creation will continue to be a big problem. It doesn’t mean we should not train our people for work, but our economic policies will help us create incentives, ensuring competitive and high-paying jobs for our people.”

Reiterating the need to increase investment in education and healthcare, Obaseki stated, “We should stop sermonising healthcare and deal with it as an everyday issue. The emphasis should be to channel the bulk of our resources on primary health care, strengthen Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), equip and train the practitioners to be able to better handle issues.”