Stories by David Agba
Abuja
Nigeria’s apex traders body, the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) has insisted that the country’s economic will only have a direction when there is an economic blueprint.
In a signed statement evaluating President Muhammadu Buhari’s one year in government, NANTS National President, Ken Ukaoha, noted that without an economic blueprint in place it would be difficult to understand the direction of government’s policies.
The government has come under serious criticism over its inability to come out with a document detailing its economic direction with one time minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili describing it as a ‘command economy’ that will not allow the country make progress.
Even foreign investors are reluctant to come into the country due to what many of them say is the unclear direction of government’s economic policy.
While commending the government for some economic decision so far taken, Ukaoha said that NANTS is dismayed that one year of the four-year tenure of the present administration is gone without an economic blueprint.
“We dare say that no credible government the world over runs a governance structure without a navigator and that navigator in this case is its economic blueprint. This blueprint should be laced with performance indicators and benchmarks, and it is based on these that the government will be eventually evaluated.
