Economic Summit To Harness Nigeria’s Economic Prosperity – FG

The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba on Wednesday in Abuja announced that the forthcoming 28th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES #28) will serve as a forum to harness Nigeria’s economic prosperity.

The Nigeria Economic Summit is jointly convened by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) with the

Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.

The Minister said 11 pre-summit events had been held between August and September across sectors and thematic areas in preparation for NES #28.

These he said covered fiscal policy, investment, financial inclusion, MSMEs, and Infrastructure, amongst others.

“The Pre-Summit events also included a National Economic Dialogue for Youths focused on critical areas, including Economic Growth and Stability and Human Capital Development.

“These events have kick-started the Summit discussions and will be examined in further detail at the Summit, with outcomes reflected in the 2022 green book”, the Minister said.

He said the theme of the Summit, “2022 and Beyond: Priorities for Shared Prosperity”, is scheduled to hold from November 14 -15 in Abuja.

According to him, the theme was carefully chosen to discuss priorities for post 2023 with emphasis on the policies and strategies encapsulated in the National Development Plan 2021-2025 and Nigeria Agenda 2022-2050.

Speaking earlier on this years Summit, the Chairman of NESG, Mr Asue Ighodalo, projected that “in five years, Nigeria can become a leading industrializing and reforming nation in Africa that focuses on building its State capacity and capabilities”.

“Within that period, Nigeria he said can break free from decades-long political, policy, legislative and regulatory binding constraints”.

“We can create an enabling investment climate and business environment, underpinned by a motivated, capacitated, well-resourced, world-class civil service that drives open, transparent, high-performance governance at all levels.

“We can move Nigeria decisively towards structural and institutional reforms required to unlock local content development, sub-national economic diversification, competitiveness, and growth in the medium term.

“Also the country can moderate and incremental progress in poverty reduction and job creation, and we can make Nigeria the dominant shareholder of FDI inflows into the African continent.

Ighodalo pointed out that since the country is in full electioneering season, “2023 presents another opportunity to demonstrate a strong political will to tackle Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges”

the NESG boss added that the Summit “seeks to unveil the most critical challenges for urgent attention: these are unemployment surge, huge infrastructural deficit, fiscal weakness, human capital and skills gap, flawed security architecture, and corruption”.

(Daily Trust)