Edozien, Utomi say private sector growth key to Nigeria’s economic transformation

Former Chief Economic Adviser to President Shehu Shagari, Prof. Emmanuel Edozien and founder, Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), Prof. Pat Utomi, have said the speed with which a nation’s economy is transformed is related or co-related with the acceleration of such country’s private sector growth.

Speaking at the 41st CVL Leadership Without Title lecture in Lagos, Edozien noted that private sector growth could be facilitated through promoting entrepreneurship.

According to him, the most important part of being a good entrepreneur is being innovative and having the spirit of enterprise and implementation of world changing ideas.

With the theme, ‘Ideas and Spirit of enterprise’, he noted that being blessed with the spirit of enterprise is invariably the primary reason for the success of new ventures.

On his part, Utomi said it is an irony that while positive leadership is yet to evolve from the political class, Nigeria’s private sector consistently boasts of visionary leaders, who are able to hold their grounds in the challenging world of business.

“Nigerians have headed complex multinational firms in virtually all industrial sectors with excellent performance that makes the political class pale into oblivion.”

According to him, a common trend in all countries that have recorded tremendous development and growth since the end of the Great Depression is the dominance of private enterprise or emergence of wealth creation through private enterprise.