Special Adviser to the President on economic matters, Dr. Yemi Dipeolu, has stated that a stronger focus on infrastructure, agriculture, financial technology, and entertainment were relevant means to an improved economy come 2019.
Dipeolu made this statement at the just concluded KPMG CFO forum tagged “Planning on purpose: 2019 Economic Outlook”, in Lagos, where he noted that inconsistency in oil price, political instability and state incapability to sustain ambitions, if not handled better would prevent the economy from growing next year.
“Government should invest more in infrastructures; this will improve the ease of doing business in the country which will automatically improve the economy.
“Also, agriculture is important for the economy because it has a flexible system, however, we have underestimated the impact of the entertainment industry even information and technology is underappreciated. We must also learn to prioritize human capital development if we must boost our businesses come 2019.” He argues that the previous years were characterized by poor debt management stating that this time the country will experience a better economy. “The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about 20 percent of the GDP about 18.4. Debt to GDP ratio refers to the carrying capacity of the economy; it shows what the economy is capable of carrying. In term of the absolute stock of debt, Nigeria is not doing badly. It is understandable the last experience is external indebtedness which caused a lot of apprehension and burden. I argued that this time is different in the sense that what caused the last debt crisis was the combination of short-term trade arrears, which were just there and not been repaid.”