Stakeholders at the 63rd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Monday, said it is essential for the country to shift from a mono to a diversified economy that promotes agriculture, manufacturing and tradable services, while at the same time, professing solutions to the structural challenges facing Nigeria’s economy.
The stakeholders also stressed the need for fiscal policies in the country to be strengthened to promote economic growth.
Speaking at the first plenary session of the conference held in Abuja, Mr Adetilewa Adebajo, Chief Executive Officer, CFG Advisory said Nigeria’s economy was losing value and making life difficult for many Nigerians.
For Mr Allen Onyema, the Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace Limited, getting the economy right, and decoding Nigeria’s strategy for growth, diversification, inclusivity and sustainability was not negotiable.
The panellists agreed that the oil sector provided 95 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings and 80 per cent of its budgetary revenues and also
agreed that the economic potential of the country was constrained by many structural issues, including non-diversification of the economy.
Speaking at the conference, a human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), said it was essential for the NBA to monitor the Federal Government in ensuring that the Port Harcourt refinery was fixed.
Falana said, the Port Harcourt branch of the NBA should monitor the work at the refinery because N1.5 billion has been earmarked to fix it, while the sum of N1.4 billion was also earmarked for the Kaduna refinery and also imports from China.
“We have just been told, and I will make the letter the Central Bank has written available to the NBA, that Nigerians transacting business in China can pay in naira.
“This will save and strengthen the naira and the rush for dollars will stop. Also, our foreign reserves, the CBN continue to maintain that it is 38 billion dollars while JIB says it is 3.7 billion dollars.
“JIB has given reasons why our foreign reserve has gone down so it behoves the NBA to call on the federal government to give us a true picture of our foreign reserves”, he said.
He also said that by virtue of Section 16 of the CBN Act, there was no room for market forces to fix the exchange rate of the naira adding that, it is the responsibility of the CBN to determine and fix the exchange rate of the naira vis a vis other currencies.
In a paper presentation entitled: ‘’Priorotising Infrastructure Development in the National Agenda’’ the Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, (ICRC), Mr Michael Ohiani, said the government had set in place machinery to ensure food security.
He disclosed that the Federal Government has concessioned 33 silos in some states across the country to improve food security and reduce the country’s dependence on foreign markets, especially grains.
Ohiani said that transparency and accountability would enhance infrastructure development in the country.
Contributing to the discussion virtually, Mr Wolemi Esan, a specialist in laws on infrastructure said that infrastructure development was a key driver for progress and a critical enabler for productivity and sustainable economic growth.
He also said the development of infrastructure was vital for the growth of the country’s overall economy adding that funding was key and that the right measures must be put in place to attract necessary funding and identified the private sector as one of the key possible financiers of infrastructure in the country.
In his own contribution, the Director General/CEO, Office of Public-Private Partnerships, Ogun State, Mr Dapo Oduwole called on the federal government to create an enabling environment to attract local and foreign investment in the country.
