The Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG, is planning to hold an economic dialogue that will discuss daunting economic challenges confronting the nation.
The National Economic Dialogue, which will take place in Abuja on May 20, will pay attention to six critical challenges that the government needs to address urgently, which are weak and non-inclusive economic growth, macroeconomic instability, infrastructure deficit, human capital deficit and skills gap, as well as national insecurity and weak economic competitiveness.
In a statement sent to The Punch, the organisation said the wide array of socio-economic challenges besetting the Nigerian economy had clearly shown that the country could not afford to rely on the business-as-usual practice and must, instead, embrace a more holistic approach to finding lasting solutions to the nation’s array of problems.
“As a result, Nigeria needs an urgent turnaround in policy choices and economic management to achieve improved socio-economic outcomes. As a result, there is no better time than now for the country to make good choices that will proffer short- and long-term solutions to our challenges,” NESG said.
The body said as the 2023 general election approached, it had become pertinent to have a national dialogue that would identify and extensively discuss the key structural bottlenecks and challenges that the country had faced overtime to ensure that the political elite and stakeholders were rightly guided in terms of policy choices and implementation.
“It is on this premise that the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) aims to hold a National Economic Dialogue discourse to highlight possible solutions to the myriads of socio-economic problems in Nigeria.
“The National Economic Dialogue on the state of the Nigerian Economy is crucial at this critical point in time because it offers a unique opportunity for us as a nation to come together and have a snapshot reflection on the current state of the economy, discuss the challenges we are facing, the choices that present themselves, the paths that lie ahead of us and the tough decisions that we must take to build a globally competitive economy that works for us all.”
NESG said the dialogue presented an opportunity for Nigerians to find solutions to the multi-dimensional global economic challenges – the post-COVID-19 Economy, and the Russian-Ukraine crisis and the national leadership transition -while embracing the need to foster national consciousness toward a better economic outlook.
The National Economic Dialogue will host combined virtual and in-person sessions.
