Economic Transformation: Don Tasks Private Sector On Public Policies

A Professor of Economics, Mike Obadan, last Friday urged the private sector not to undermine laudable public policies capable of enhancing the benefits of economic transformation to the people.
Obadan said this while delivering a keynote address at the “2018 Annual Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) Development Forum,’’ held in Lagos.
Reports say that the theme of the forum is: “Towards Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation of Nigeria: Options for Non-States Intervention’’.
Obadan, who is a non-Executive Director, Board of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said part of the options available to impact positively on socio-economic transformation was to spread laudable polices to Nigerians, especially those at the grassroots.
According to Obadan, the private sector or the non-State Actors, should effectively serve as the engine of growth and socio-economic transformation by engaging in innovations, while raising productivity.
“They should also be the major hub for employment, output generation and poverty reduction, as they embrace wholeheartedly, the government policy of local content development and non-oil export.
“They should be a major vanguard in the fight against corruption, be a major ally in efficient and effective budgeting, rather than colluding with the public sector operatives in sharp practices,’’ he said.
The don also charged them to contribute effectively to government revenue by duly paying taxes.
He stressed that the call for the support of the private sector become imperative because government intervention had not yielded the desired expectations, especially to the poor.
“As at the third quarter of 2017, the unemployment rate in the country from the reports of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed an aggregate unemployment of 18.8 per cent.
“Also, underemployment is put at 21.2 per cent, while youth unemployment is 52.65 per cent,’’ he said.