Mr Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, says President Bola Tinubu is empathetic and committed to minimising the pains of economic reforms on Nigerians.
Edun gave the assurance at the 2023 Annual Directors Conference of the Chartered Institute of Directors Nigeria (CIoD) on Thursday in Abuja monitored virtually by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
NAN reports that the event had as its theme: “Driving Nigeria’s Economic Transformation and Diversification: “The Role of Corporate Governance”.
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He said the economic reforms were necessary and its benefits will take some time to materialise.
Edun, addressing the theme of the conference, said that the Nigerian economy was already diversified, but its source of foreign revenue was not fully diversified.
According to him, there is not enough foreign exchange savings to give the country the positive balance of trade, hence the need for export earnings to be greater than import expenditure to stabilise the currency.
“The agenda is to provide first and foremost a stable economy, growing more than population growth, with low inflation, stable foreign exchange to enable investments in productive activities.
“This is what the President is working on and we are a work in progress and we look forward to the task at hand.
“The big price is to make ourselves a formidable economy, our institutions a corporate governance place so that those interested in investing can have trust in their investment.
“The IoD has a major role to play in championing corporate governance so we have a clean lead corporate sector which the world can come and partner for growth and progress,” he said.
Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, stated that ethical corporate governance was a critical building block of diversification and economic transformation.
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Uzoka-Anite revealed that the President Bola Tinubu led administration was working on developing a robust monitoring and evaluation framework across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to facilitate economic development.
“This is a call to action for us all to play our parts in driving economic growth and stability via good corporate governance.
“It is established that countries with well functional corporate governance framework experience more growth rate.
“Nigeria is blessed with abundant natural resources but continue to face significant challenges in realising economic development.
“This is where the role of corporate governance comes in and the CIoD has a vital role to play in this regard by living by example and upholding the highest standards of accountability and transparency,” she said.
Dr Ernest Ndukwe, the Chairman, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, said the theme of the event was apt as corporate governance played a very significant role in shaping businesses and government.
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Ndukwe stressed that the shift to diversification would contribute to equitable income distribution and support the journey towards a more resilient and prosperous nation.
He stated that Nigeria stood at a critical juncture in its nationhood journey as the time had come to stop paying lip service to economic diversification and take decisive action that would bring it to reality.
According to him, we must explore vast potential in other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, technology and services especially areas where we have comparative advantage as a nation.
“There’s still a lot of room to really truly diversify the economy as a nation to reduce volatility, create employment across diverse fields and foster innovation and global competitiveness.
“To harness these opportunities, the focus of our governance structure should be on nurturing our full potential and break free from chains of mono-economic structure and diversify our economy laying foundation for a more prosperous future.
“Also, optimisation of talents is deem crucial for sustainable economic development and Nigeria’s youthful population filled with talent, creativity, entrepreneurship is nothing but a blessing.
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“Inclusive, merit based recruitment practices, investment in continuous learns and other sound corporate governance practices must be embraced laying foundation for a more prosperous future for generations to come,” he said. (NAN)