Financial experts advocate long-term economic policy for Nigeria

Financial experts on Friday urged the Federal Government to formulate long- term economic policies that would position the economy for growth, regardless of change in government.

The experts told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that lack of policy continuity was a clog in the wheel of economic development in Nigeria and the entire African continent.

They attributed the economic stagnation to lack of blueprint and the delay in the appointment of ministers by government.

Dr Evans Osabuohien of the Department of Economics and Development Studies, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun, said that frequent policy changes were retarding economic progress in Nigeria.

He advocated for a strong and vibrant institutional mechanism to ensure the sustenance of good economic policies, regardless of the persons in power.

“Frequent policy changes have been one of the clogs in the wheel of economic development in Africa, not only in Nigeria.

“This is what we call `policy morbidity’ in one of our unpublished works’’, Osabuohien said.

The don said that frequent policy changes were not just costly, but also capable of creating lack of confidence on the part of the citizens.

“Just imagine the chaos of changing the size of the goal post or field in every World Cup or FIFA tournament’’, Osabuohien said.

He said that one of the economic miracles of Singapore was the emplacement of a functional and qualitative education policy, which was binding on successive governments.

Prof. Tella Sheriffadeen of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago- Iwoye, Ogun, advocated for a 20-year national economic planning for Nigeria.

Sheriffadeen said it was normal to have investment slow down when a new administration stepped in, because of an anticipated change in policy direction.

According to him, frequent policy changes do not augur well for the overall economic health of the nation.

“Investors normally wait to see the actual way a new government wants to go’’, Sheriffadeen said.