Finance minister seeks private sector assistance to revamp Nigeria’s economy

“We cannot grow the economy by ourselves. We need revenue. We need jobs. We need to be able to do things to encourage and motivate the private sector.”

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, says Nigeria needs help from the private sector to meet its public investment needs.

Ms Ahmed said this at the presentation of the latest World Bank Nigeria Development Update (Nigeria’s Choice and Country Economic Memorandum: Charting a New Course) in Abuja on Thursday.

“I wish to conclude my address by conceding that we need help. The Nigerian government at the national and subnational levels cannot provide all the financing required to meet Nigeria’s public investment needs,” the minister stated. “As stated in the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2025, we need the private sector, both foreign and domestic, as integral partners in securing the much-needed financing required to fund both physical and social investments for Nigeria’s overall development.”

According to her, the report noted that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita would continue to decline under a business-as-usual scenario but stressed that the Nigerian economy had demonstrated considerable resilience in addressing the challenges caused by COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine war.

Governor Godwin Obaseki said the solution was beyond microeconomics but in building a consensus and having an agreement to build the economy.

“So, why should policy not be tuned to support the activities of the private sector so we can create more jobs? There is no alignment of interests for those in government. Look at our budget; up to 70 per cent of our budget is on servicing government and government institutions and much less on providing a supportive environment to allow the private sector,” explained Mr Obaseki.

The Edo governor added, “Unless and until we have that alignment in terms of interests and build the political and social consensus, we will just keep turning around. I think we must broaden the conversations and understand that there is nothing new. It is either we drive our potential, or things will fall apart.”

Governor Nasir El-Rufai said the private sector had a major role in arriving at a consensus to change the economic trajectory of Nigeria since it accounts for 95 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP.

“The consensus is that if 95 per cent of jobs are from the private sector and 90 per cent of GDP is from the private sector, the private sector should agree that these things must be done,” he stated. “I have told you the two big elephants in this room are subsidy and exchange rate, and those at the receiving end of these are the private sector and the subnational.”

According to Mr El-Rufai, Nigeria needs a president who would permanently reverse the country’s trajectory.

“Nigeria’s next president must make urgent and immediate decisions, maybe three to five years of pain to reverse this trajectory,” the Kaduna governor stressed. “So that president that is ready to change the trajectory will remove the word ‘potential’ from Nigeria’s vocabulary, and we will finally be the country we deserve to be.”

Sarah Alade, the adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on finance and economy, said the way “we will do this is through urgent” fiscal reforms.

“The fiscal stance has to be consistent, and then we talk about removing subsidies, making revenue available and so on. We also must have a monetary policy stance consistent with low inflation,” Ms Alade explained. “We have to also look at the exchange rate. Our exchange rate must be such that it avoids volatility.”

The presidential adviser pointed out that “we cannot grow the economy by ourselves.” 

She added, “We need revenue. We need jobs. We need to be able to do things to encourage and motivate the private sector to come and provide all we need.”

(NAN)