An economist has said that the planned to rebase the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) may likely slow down growth in the country towards 2015.
The economist who is a senior lecturer with Lagos Business School, Doyin Salami, made this remark in Lagos at the Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria (RMB) Investors’ conference. He said that the forthcoming general elections could slow down economic growth.
In his own calculation, 2014 is effectively an election year and the first six month of 2015 would be the conclusion of that election, stressing that it is after that period that the country would begin to think on how to regain the growth momentum,
Describing human capital development as a fundamental challenge in the country, he expressed the need for government to design policies that would develop knowledge, competence and creativity in the country.
“If we are able to overcome that with some determination and on a basis which suggests that we demand a national consensus and with educational reform, we would go very far,” he insisted.
He pointed out that the major problem for growth in the country was around issues of job creation as well as the upward concentration of income.
Salami who expressed optimism that after the conclusion of the ongoing power reform, power supply would improve remarkably, pointed out that achieving sustained power supply in the country post privatisation of the power assets would take about three years.
Also speaking, the chief executive officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, said that the nation’s currency will continue to be weak while political instability would also be on the increase.
Rewane said there was need for diversification of the economy such that it would be shifted from oil dependency.
He however said that the country needed to pursue the attainment of the millennium development goals and achieve international and domestic competitiveness.
