An economist, Dr Ifediora Amobi, has urged the Federal government to pay attention to four key areas to sustain the current positive economic growth rate in the country.
Amobi, a former Executive Director of African Heritage Institution (an economic think tank), gave the advice while speaking with the NAN in Enugu.
“First, the Federal Government must be focused and be bold enough to continue with its growth stimulating policies, although some people said they are harsh.
“But, the argument is that the harshness brings out the needed discipline both in fiscal and monetary aspects of the country’s economy,’’ he said.
According to him, the second step is for government to fine-tune its foreign investment policies to attract more foreign investors.
“Even, the confidence of the foreign investors will return as recession is kicked-out of the country,’’ he said.
Amobi, who is the Executive Secretary, Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA), said third area of concentration should be for government to develop the infrastructure.
“As a country, we need to close the infrastructure gap in power, road, telecom service provision and technology,’’ he said.
According to the economic expert, there is a need to further improve the growth in the agriculture sector.
Amobi added that the country had comparative advantage in agriculture due to the vast arable land and good climate.
“We are doing well in agriculture now. However, we need to improve on agriculture not just on producing, but also in converting the raw agricultural produce to the needed manufacturing inputs for industries world over.
“We need to go beyond farming for food security purposes, but farming and agro-allied businesses to enable us earn foreign exchange for further growth of the economy and more money in the hands of our farmers,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently released its quarterly economic statistics which indicated that the country was now out of recession after two consecutive quarters’ economic positive growth.