The Nigerian Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga, has listed power generation, job creation, increased productivity, provision of credit facilities, removal of double taxation and creation of conducive environment for local and foreign investments to thrive, as the priority areas for his ministry.
“The present administration has made it a priority to make a difference in the lives of the people,” Aganga told journalists shortly after his meeting with some captains of industries in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria.
According to the minister, “To make this possible, we have identified three broad areas that will facilitate this. Every economy, every business needs capital, we will source and allocate capital to critical areas such as the small and medium enterprises to enable them grow.”
PANA reports that high unemployment has been a major challenge to successive governments in Africa’s most populous nation.
According to the country’s Bureau of statistics, the largest group that is most affected are young people aged between 15 and 25, with unemployment in urban areas as high as 49% and 39.7% in the rural areas.
Aganga said: “It is bad to learn that unemployment is very high. This is why job creation is a major priority area of this administration. We also intend to boost productivity, when this is got right, it could contribute about 60% to the growth of Gross Domestic Product(GDP).
“But we realize that this cannot be achieve without addressing the power problem. When you resolve the issue of power you have resolved so many other issues. We are committed to an improve power supply before the end of this tenure.”
The former chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, United Kingdom, assured foreign investors of a conducive environment for their businesses to flourish.
“In this regard, the government will remove all barriers to the growth of enterp rises such as multiple taxation. We know that double taxation affects cost of doing business; we intend to make the Nigerian economy competitive.
“We intend to diversify the economy, maximize our revenue base and block all lea kages. The other area is to make sure that all Nigerians get value for all money spent. This is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending.”
Even though the minister sounded optimistic, many observers were of the view that the limited time of the administration may affect the full implementation of the set goals.
The event , put together by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), is tagged Policy Dialogue on Nigerian Economy, with the theme, ‘Attaining Sustainable Economic Growth through Public-Private Partnership’.
The NESG is an economic think tank with membership from the private sector of the economy.