Government should incentivize production, provide enabling environment for businesses to thrive, ensure locally produced goods and services compete in the International Market and ensure that necessary infrastructures are put in place with these Nigeria will be self-reliant. In other words, there is need to Identify areas where we have competitive advantage, then develop required and necessary policies and most importantly ensure proper implementation of developed policies.

The future of the Nigerian economy is very bright. The Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (ERRP) by the Federal Government with other complementary policies are set to propel the Nigerian economy out of the recession and move the economy forward. The broad government strategy of infrastructure development, structural reforms and investment in social safety nets are policies that will position the economy to a more inclusive and diversified growth.

Our businesses and bottom lines would be better and the overall growth and development of Nigeria and that of Africa rests on designing and collectively defining an industry where everyone is playing a part to move things forward.

We need a radical reappraisal of public finance in Nigeria. We spend money without thinking. We have carried on for too long thinking more about how to spend money, reflecting less on how to raise revenue — largely because of the seasonal oil windfalls. A modern state cannot build its finances on oil windfalls and hand-outs. The revenue base must be well established, reliable and predictable.

How do we deepen the faith of our people? People are simple and have faith, but this needs to be renewed and revitalized, to awaken missionary zeal into our people. We need to focus on training and creating a new leadership of lay faithful. Another challenge we face is the poverty among the Catholic community, too, and they too need holistic development.

For the country to attain sustainable growth status, the Nigerian engineers need to be adequately engaged in planning, policy formulation, consultancy and construction, as well as industrial process of production and manufacturing.

Financial illiteracy results in poor financial inclusion. Non-financial inclusion becomes a threat to the survival of the Nigerian financial sector as most adults and young Nigerians are financially excluded from the formal financial sector. A high percentage of adult Nigerians don’t have bank accounts, and this in the long run becomes a big headache for central banking.

The challenges are many. Oil price volatility and the unstable global environment are major challenges for Central Banking in Nigeria as they are causing growth challenges and other spill-over effects for the local economy. Central Banking in Nigeria is faced with other enormous challenges such as the size of Nigeria’s informal sector. Globally, developing/emerging economies are characterized by a big informal sector which causes a lot of limitations to Monetary Policy implantation and coverage because a majority of the participants in the sector are not using formal financial services and so cannot be captured formally.

Evidently, a world-class capital market is absolutely essential to Nigeria’s economy.

For Nigeria, like most developing countries, policy has often times focused on the flexible exchange rate regime and financial integration, emphasizing monetary policy independence. However, as globalization, capital flows constraints and other adverse phenomena set in, it has become imperative to seek a convergence.

Poor financial literacy is another. It is only when the vast majority of the Nigerian population is financially literate that they can participate in the formal financial system; the reverse is the case.

For any country I do feel strongly that capital markets are extremely important, but more so for Nigeria than any other, because it’s almost been 50 years since independence.

To be clear, African countries are seeking development partnerships, not handouts or aid. In Nigeria, we have requested longer-term financing from MDBs to weather the current storm. These banks could also facilitate partnerships between private investors and local African businesses to boost economic growth and job creation.

The question is how do we work with the private sector to recover the necessary financing and diversify the economy?