VP Outlines Buhari’s Economic Programme

Speaking at the 45th Annual Accounting Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria on Wednesday, Vice-President Osinbajo explained why GDP growth does not impact on Nigerians.

After 100 days in office, Osinbajo has said that he believes that social sector investment is the way forward for Nigeria right now. By investing in people, education, job creation, the national school feeding scheme, conditional cash transfers and reflating the economies of states as indices, Osinbajo stated that we will witness a boost in our economy.

Osinbajo highlighted the current top-down economic model, as well as a lack of consideration for the structure and quality of growth, partly explain why despite the countries rising GDP and foreign reserves, unemployment and poverty remain a challenge. He stated: “Growth figures can be deceptive where the structure and quality of growth are not considered. [High growth numbers could become an irony] with a top-down economic model, when the major revenue earner is extractive and the value chain is poorly developed”.  He further pointed out that some of the nation’s economic revival had already been put into place by President Buhari and his administration, such as the bailout schemes.

According to This Day, while noting that education was crucial for basic economic development, Osinbajo stated that the new administration is focusing on improving the quality of teachers that are placed in schools. This programme intends on driving teacher capacity development, boosting basic education and attracting talents to the teaching profession. He also stated that the APC is committed to providing one meal a day for primary school students, which should boost our agricultural industry, including poultry, catering and delivery services. This scheme is said to provide 1.14 million new jobs.

Osinbajo also identified cash transfer as a scheme that is being set up for the 25 million poorest households across the country in order to eradicate absolute poverty. This programme is said to incentivise vaccinations, education and production through a multiplier effect, by lifting millions out of poverty and putting them into rural production and boosting the rural economy. He also stressed the need for several other issues:

• Ensuring ease of doing business.
• The need to improve the power sector.
• Innovation and fighting piracy.
• Diversifying the economy in agriculture – self-sufficiency in rice and wheat (staples) production.
• Boosting our manufacturing, entertainment and technology.

In terms of the power sector, he stated: “Despite the challenges, there have been measurable improvements over the past three months (June to August 2015).  A 26% increase in operational generation capacity (June to August 15, 2015 compared to January to May 2015); decrease in pipeline vandalism boosting gas supply; a 10% reduction in transmission losses (June to July 2015 compared to January to May 2015); reduction in red tape to remove delays blocking the 450MW Azura-Edo IPP and the 500MW Exxon Mobil Qua-Iboe IPP; the imposition of a September 2015 deadline for the submission of the Discos’ revised tariff trajectories.”

The President of ICAN, Chief Samuel Olufemi Deru, commended Vice-President Osinbajo for his commitment and for attending the programme in person.