We have the second largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa and one of the fastest growing one in the world.
Minister of Finance, Segun Aganga, has said that Nigeria can no longer be ignored by investors seeking good returns on their funds. Speaking at the official commissioning of the first phase of the 400,000 metric tons per annum Midland Steel Rolling Mills complex at Abeokuta, Ogun State, the Minister said the present administration has taken steps to harness the country's potentials towards ensuring it takes its rightful place not only among the world's leading economies, but also as an industrialised nation.
"We have the second largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa and one of the fastest growing one in the world. We have the largest population in Africa and the 8th largest in the world. Our people are young, vibrant and educated as well as ready to work at economic prices." Mr. Aganga said that, apart from being a leading producer and exporter of oil with the largest gas reserves in Africa, the country is blessed with numerous mineral resources, 33 of which are available in commercial quantities. "We can also be grateful for the 65 million hectares of fertile land that contributes about 43 per cent to our GDP, which gives us the potential to become an agricultural power house," he said.
However, there have been questions around the mismatch between the huge potential of the country and its impact on the quality of life of the citizens. Analyst at FSDH, a financial advisory and investment firm said improving on the poor state of infrastructure for instance, will bring huge multiplier effects on the future growth capacity of the country. "We urge the Federal Government to put in place workable and measurable plans to address the high unemployment rate and infrastructural deficits that dominate the economy in order to achieve the Vision 20:2020," it stated in its 2011 economic forecast. The firm called for the acceleration of funding of agriculture and modern method of farming in Nigeria as they are strategies to boost employment generation in Nigeria.
Performance
Reviewing the performance of the economy in recent years, the minister noted that the country's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate rose from 6.96 per cent in 2009 to about 7.85 per cent last year, against 4.8 per cent recorded in the global economy in 2010, pointing out that the performance had attracted the attention of such global financial institutions as the international Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank as one of the strongest globally.
Besides, he said Nigeria is currently a part of the Next Eleven (N-11) group of countries identified by Goldman Sachs, the global investment bank, as having a high potential of becoming the world's largest economies in the 21st century along with the BRICs economies, consisting Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
To enable Nigeria achieve its potential as well as play a leading role within the N-11, government should focus on pursuing the reforms that will help rebuild and grow the country's economy on a sustainable basis, and paying particular attention to its vast potential, strengths and other challenges. "Government's plans are targeting an overall double-digit growth rate in the medium term that will place Nigeria in the top tier of emerging economies within the next decade," he declared.
Enabling environment
Mr. Aganga revealed that , government is committed to ensuring that the enabling environment exists for the private sector and investors to thrive, adding that in the last eight months it has been implementing an economic strategy based on the four pillars of sourcing and allocating of cheap long-term capital to the real sector and infrastructure, inclusive growth and job creation, removal of barriers to enhance productivity as well as improving the business climate and governance.
He said a roadmap for critical infrastructure has already identified 50 critical projects, including power plants, roads, bridges, rail and aviation, to be executed to help impact the economy as well as boost productivity. "My experiences with investors in the last five months have been encouraging. In the last four days, at least 7 big international firms have indicated interest to invest large sums of money in refineries, fertilizer plants, in agriculture, textile, in breweries, in hospitals, in power and roads," he said.
Source:234next
No comments:
Post a Comment