Emeritus professor of Economics at the University of Ibadan, Ademola Oyejide on Wednesday stated that Nigeria has not witnessed inclusive growth.
To achieve inclusive growth, the federal government, he said must establish and effectively implement an inclusive growth and development strategy.
The don who noted that what Nigeria has been experiencing is ‘jobless growth’ maintained that Nigeria “had never witnessed inclusive growth, is not witnessing inclusive growth and may never witness inclusive growth” unless the right policies are formulated and faithfully implemented.
Emeritus Professor Oyejide stated this in the first Professor Emmanuel Edozien Distinguished Service Fellow lecture delivered in the Department of Economics, University of Ibadan.
In the Lecture, entitled “Making Inclusive Growth Happen in Nigeria”, Oyejide averred that for economic growth to be inclusive, it must create new employment opportunities that will allow the involvement of everybody in the production process.
Oyedije who noted the dismal ranking of Nigeria on the The Inclusive Growth and Development Index Report of 2017 noted that Nigeria with a score of 3.07 was positioned 71 out of the 79 developing countries adding that “this suggests that Nigeria’s performance had been weakening over the previous five years”.
To achieve inclusive growth, the emeritus professor of economics asked the federal government to ensure that “growth process is sufficiently employment-intensive in order to create the opportunities for effective participation of people both in terms of generating the growth and sharing of benefits.”
According to the don, Nigeria must achieve a high stable and sustained long-term economic growth rate and enhance human capabilities in order that the labour force is continually enabled to seize the employment opportunities being created by the growth process.
“it is clear that the achievement of inclusive growth in any country must be based on rapid and sustained long-run economic growth which is generated by as many sectors of the economy which involves the participation of many people as possible in both the growth process and the sharing of the benefits of that growth. In addition, appropriate social protection and safety nets should be provided to cater for the vulnerabilities and risks that are encountered.”
