The forthcoming 25th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#25) will set a new agenda for the country to usher in the next industrial revolution and mark a critical strategic shift to competitive private sector economy by 2050. This will be through a renewed focus on investments in human capital development to achieve competitiveness and inclusive growth.
Asue Ighodalo, chairman, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), who led a team of the foremost private sector-led think tank to BusinessDay on a courtesy visit on Wednesday, said the summit theme is “Nigeria 2050: Shifting Gears”.
The NES#25 sub-themes will focus on achieving rapid industrialisation, transforming education, managing demography and sustainable peace and security.
The NES#25 which holds in Abuja October 7-8, 2019 will bring stakeholders in private sector, public sector, social sector, politics, civil society, academia, international organisations and diplomatic community together to create a unifying narrative for setting a long-term national agenda that will be led by the private sector.
The summit is a yearly flagship event of the NESG, a private sector-led think-tank that promotes sustainable growth and development in the Nigerian economy.
The forthcoming summit falls into the NESG’s roles as a dialogue partner, watchdog, intervener, and connector.
“Discussions will be anchored on three pillars – economic growth, competitiveness and inclusive development – and they will drive discussions at the sessions and generate robust and rigorous engagements with an overarching objective of signalling a coherent and clear 30-year forward agenda for the private sector to lead sustainable economic development,” Ighodalo said.
“The NESG has come a long way and has always stayed true to its mandate from the onset; which is to promote and champion the reform of the Nigerian economy into an open, globally competitive economy. While at it, I daresay that the NESG has become the foremost private sector think tank in Nigeria,” he added.
At the first Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#1) in 1993, public and private sector leaders explored global scenario covering 1992-2020 and defined the principles for building a competitive economy for Nigeria. Consequently, NES#1 recommended a number of principles in defining the underlying economic philosophy that would be the premise of 21st Century Nigeria. They include commitment to a free market economy, encouragement of private sector led investments, creation of an enabling environment, good governance in the national interest, rule-based economy, and establishment of economic foundation for democracy.
“In addition to articulating the characteristics of an economic philosophy designed to enable Nigeria to achieve an open market economy, the first summit also defined areas of focus in building a competitive economy across ‘New Frontiers’ consisting education, macro-economic stabilisation, privatisation, deregulation, ‘infrastructurisation’ and democratisation,” Ighodalo said.
“After days of dialogue and deliberations, the Federal Government at NES#1 adopted the underlying economic philosophy that would be the premise of 21st Century Nigeria,” he noted.
During its subsequent deliberations, the Nigerian Economic Summit has sustained the agenda to promote an open and globally competitive economy. The expectations over successive Nigerian Economic Summits have been that this economic philosophy would form the basis of reform proposals, economic development planning and policies.
For example, at the NES#3 (in 1996), there was a national stakeholder consensus that Nigeria needed a National Vision. That summit proposed a National Vision Statement for Nigeria by 2025: “Nigeria will be a well-ordered, well-governed, just and prosperous nation, united in sustained endeavour”.
NES#3 also proposed a change programme from 1996 to 2010 (laying the foundation for the Vision 2010 Agenda).
In 1997, the Vision 2010 Committee consisting of 240 members (including private sector members drawn mainly from past Summit participants) submitted the Vision 2010 Report, hence NES#4 was dedicated to discussing its implementation.
By 2001, Nigeria had transited from military rule to democracy and with a growth rate of 10 percent, the country was classified as one of the “MINT” nations (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) with the economic potential to join the “BRICS” nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). In 2007, the country set a bold agenda to join the league of top 20 nations in the world by 2020.
The Nigeria Vision 20:2020 remains the underlying definition of economic aspiration. The current administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari, in reaction to the economic recession in 2016, launched the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020 in April 2017 to achieve (i) much-needed economic recovery in the short-term, and (ii) set a pathway for sustained and inclusive economic growth. The ERGP (2017-2020) and Vision 20:2020 will expire next year so the time has come to focus on shifting gears to a competitive private sector economy by 2050.
Against the background of these efforts, the country made notable progress in economic growth, rising to first place within the Africa continent, Ighodalo noted.
However, the NESG believes that despite rapid growth in the past, Nigeria still lags in key macroeconomic and socioeconomic indicators.
“This is not deterring and we will continue to intervene in national interest through our flagship public/private sector dialogue platform,” NESG added.
IHEANYI NWACHUKWU
