Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration would evolve policies that would foster economic growth, drive industrialisation and enhance efficiency in the next four years.
The president who said this while delivering his closing remarks at the end of a two-day presidential policy dialogue session in Abuja on Thursday, said his would explore deliberations at the meeting to develop policies aimed at stimulating significant investments that would industrialise the agriculture sector, facilitate private sector participation in infrastructure development, unlock growth potential in the petroleum sector as well as improve ease of doing business.
“As we come to the end of this Presidential Policy Dialogue Session, the key proposals made by the experts are for the federal government to consider the following strategic initiatives over the next four years,” Buhari sad.
“Stimulate significant investments in the industrialisation of agriculture; develop policies that will facilitate private sector participation in infrastructure projects;
“Introduce policies and regulatory changes that will unlock growth potentials in the petroleum sector – both upstream and downstream;
“Aggressively improve the ease of doing business by reducing bureaucracy and improving inter agency collaboration, provide incentives for investors, especially in agriculture and power sectors, facilitate construction of mass and affordable housing to propel economic growth and reduce the massive housing deficit, launch of a consumer credit scheme with the banking sector for citizens to have access to long term and affordable mortgages and consumer credit;
“Address our security challenges by working in collaboration with the private sector; fix the power sector by addressing some of the regulatory uncertainties and operational shortcomings of the key players; drive efficiency in public service delivery through realignment of the Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs) and implementation of e-governance solutions;
“As you are aware, some of my ministerial nominees are currently undergoing their screening at the National Assembly. God willing, the proposals from this session will be discussed and finalised with them in the coming weeks as they take on their portfolios.
“Although most of the proposals were targeted at the federal government, I also want to remind the state governors to do their part, especially in the areas of education and health care, which are within their constitutional responsibilities.”
The programme which lasted for over seven hours and was attended by governors, policy experts, members of the private sector and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed.
