Renowned financial expert and former Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Prof. Adolphus Joseph Toby, has advocated the need for the Federal Government to open up the economy to foreign direct investment in order to get Nigeria out of her present economic woes and keep it on the path of sustainable economic growth.
Toby made this known to The Tide in reaction to the economic state of the nation, stressing that there was need to open up the country to receive massive foreign investments just like India and Saudi Arabia. He added that this would unlock vast opportunities in the country.
According to him, the Federal Government should learn how to manage cyclical shocks such as the remarkable drop in oil earnings which led to the devaluation of the naira in 2016, high level of inflation as well as increase in the interest rate.
While urging fiscal responsibility, Toby called on the Federal Government to halt the misalignment in most sectors of the nation’s economy where government parastatals were building expensive corporate offices and acquiring official vehicles without appropriation through the backing of revenue collecting agencies.
He further said that he is keen on the issues affecting Nigeria’s economic development, remarking that it has become imperative to discuss problems at the National Assembly and other organized government fora.
As he puts it, the issue of recession in Nigeria should be pursued vigorously in order to restore growth of the economy, investing in the Nigerian people and building a globally competitive economy as a blue-print for recovery in the short term and a strategy for sustained growth and development in the near future.
The university teacher observed with dismay that there was no doubt the economy was in recovery mode with inflation rate coming down from 18.45 per cent last February to 16.25 per cent in June. He pointed out that the capital market is equally on the upward swing through at a slow pace coupled with renewed effort of the Federal Government on the ease of doing business, adding that, “note worthily, the economic indices are pointing towards our exit from recession by September 2017 as perceived by the World Bank.”

Bethel Sam Toby