The National Bureau of Statistics revealed that the country’s Gross Domestic Product expanded by 3.19 percent (year over year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2024, which coincided with the IMF’s forecast for Nigeria’s economic growth.
Ebeke spoke on Tuesday at the “Invest Nigeria”-themed 2024 International Business Conference and Expo, which was hosted by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Lagos.
In order to “transform the country’s nascent momentum into something more general,” he stated that Nigeria’s economic reforms, particularly the liberalization of the financial and foreign sectors, must be strengthened.
The IMF Resident Representative continued, “Nigeria lagged as an emerging market due to structural gaps in governance and business regulation. Closing the gaps will trigger a multi-durable growth acceleration.”
According to Ebeke, the IMF did a simulation in which it reduced the structural gaps by 25% and found that raising corporate regulation and governance to the level of more established energy markets might increase Nigeria’s output by 6.4% over the following three years.
“This six can be divided by three to get an extra 10 percentage points. Nigeria is now growing at a rate of three percent, thus, by cutting business rules and governance bottlenecks by just 25 percent, the country may grow at a rate of five percent, the speaker said.
Nigeria needs to grow at least 5% or 8% annually above population growth to support businesses, especially during high interest rates and inflation. The Federal Government has been driving investments through initiatives like the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority and collaboration with Lagos State Government to clear Apapa-Tincan-Mile 2 traffic for landside operations. The government has also maximized crane productivity and reduced transit time for vessels and trucks, resulting in shorter turn-around times.
In order to further diversify Nigeria’s economy and lessen our dependency on oil, Gabriel Idahosa, President of LCCI, stated that the two-day 2024 International Business Conference and Expo will assist the Federal Government in implementing audacious reforms in a number of areas, including technology, energy, foreign exchange markets, and agriculture.
Idahosa asked the federal government to establish laws and policies that would encourage foreign capital to invest in Nigerian companies that would produce the vast majority of the goods we buy today.
