From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) has urged all Nigerians to join hands with the Buhari administration with a view to moving the country forward.
The Acting President of the institute, Dr (Mrs) Christiana Atako, gave the urge at the opening ceremony of the 2022 annual national management conference of the institute, with the theme “Public Policy Management and Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria”, held on Monday at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State.
“For Nigeria to move forward, there must be a break from the past. The operating environment must be conducive and peaceful. We all know that no meaningful development can take place in a chaotic atmosphere. The Institute, therefore, urges all Nigerians to join hands with the present administration and move the country forward,” she stated.
According to her, the choice of the theme of the conference was arrived at when the institute came to the sad realisation that one of the major reasons the country’s economy has not made meaningful progress over the years is the scant regard for putting in place appropriate public policies that drive entrepreneurship development.
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She continued: “The Nigerian economy has been characterised with a lot of inefficiencies, public sector dominance, over reliance on oil as the major revenue earner and these have typically affected the country’s course of development.
“However, since the mid-1980s, Nigeria has introduced some structural economic reforms, abolished polices and structures which prevented entry into certain industries, and opened up its markets to competition from domestic and foreign entrepreneurs.
“The government has also introduced and pursued a number of entrepreneurship encouragement policies aimed at reducing the high rates of unemployment and poverty.
“Although Nigeria is still plagued by many development challenges, the country is naturally endowed with entrepreneurship opportunities. The realisation of the full potential of these opportunities has been dampened by the adoption of inappropriate industrialisation policies at different times.
“Several policy interventions that were aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship development via small and medium scale enterprises promotion, based on technology transfer strategy, have failed to achieve the desired goals as it led to the most indigenous entrepreneurs becoming distribution agents of imported products as opposed to building in-country entrepreneurial capacity for manufacturing, mechanised agriculture and expert services.”