The Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) has called on the Federal Government to deliberately enhance macroeconomic management to boost investors’ confidence in a bid to maintain economic growth.
This was disclosed by the President of the Council, NIM, Mrs Patience Anabor and Board Chairman, Access Bank Plc, Dr Ajoritsedere Awosika at the ongoing 2021 Annual National Management Conference of the Institute on Monday in Lagos, reported by the News Agency of Nigeria, themed “Managing the Impact of Global Recession: The Nigerian Peculiarity.”
The institute added that the conference plans to help economic stakeholders with a platform to brainstorm on burning governance and leadership issues of national importance, citing that its theme is important because of the enormous challenges confronting the global economy, which according to them, resulted from several factors orchestrated by COVID-19 pandemic.
What they said
Anabor added that “the collapse in oil prices, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the Nigerian economy into a severe economic recession in 2020, the worst since the 1980s, citing the recent World Bank Nigeria Development Update, stating that before COVID-19, Nigeria’s economy was expected to grow by 2.1 per cent in 2020, but contracted instead by 3.2 per cent, leading to a five per cent reduction in growth.
“The projection assumed that the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria is contained by the third quarter of 2020. If the spread of the virus becomes more severe, the economy could contract further. It is not abnormal for a market economy to go through a business cycle of boom, recession and recovery. What matters is how long the phase of recession is effectively managed to avoid a depression,” Anabor said.
She added that major causes of recession included high inflation, accumulation of debt servicing, especially foreign debts; including over-reliance on FG revenue.
Meanwhile, the Board Chairman, Access Bank Plc, Dr Ajoritsedere Awosika, commended Nigeria’s response to the global recession of 2020, citing the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) helped to mitigate its effects, with a N2.3 trillion stimulus plan to mitigate the effects of recession, while also ensuring social stability and addressing long-standing economic vulnerabilities.
“Nigeria’s economy grew by 5.01 per cent y/y in Q2:21, which was a third consecutive quarter of growth, after having exited recession in Q4:20 with the growth of 0.11 per cent y/y.
“However, these were suboptimal growths,” Awosika said.
Awosika urged the FG to deliberately enhance macroeconomic management to boost investors’ confidence; consistently implement the right policies to stabilise, run and grow the economy.
What you should know
Recall Nairametrics reported in June that Vice President, Yemi Osinabjo disclosed that the introduction of Covid-19 stimulus packages like the Economic Sustainability Plan has been impactful in saving and creating millions of jobs in Nigeria. He added that “a total of 2,100,021 jobs have been saved and created altogether, the breakdown of the figures indicate that 1.3 million jobs have been retained through interventions in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) space, including the Payroll Support.
President Muhammadu Buhari also praised Nigeria’s effort in exiting the recession, citing the successful execution of the Economic Sustainability Plan launched by the FG to tackle the effects of the Covid pandemic on the economy.
“The Economic sustainability plan, our plan for the covid pandemic, is currently being executed, the plan is primarily focused on the non-oil sector which has recorded phenomenal growth, contributing over 90% to GDP growth in q1 2021,” Buhari said.
