MAN, LCCI want economic team to review, harmonise policies

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Lagos chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) have asked the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to comprehensively review current policies that drive government’s actions and urgently harmonise the outcomes to craft a new agenda that will guide the economy going forward.

According to the organised private sector, this is the time to accelerate reforms, ensure fiscal consolidation, enthrone a market driven foreign exchange policy and promote a trade policy regime that is in consonance with the potentials and competitiveness of the Nigerian economy.

In their comments on the establishment of the council, MAN and LCCI commended the Federal Government for setting up of the Economic Advisory Council noting that it was a welcome development that will help to give the desired direction to the nation’s economic management.

LCCI’s Director-General, Muda Yusuf said: “At a time like this, the economy needs such a team to pull the economy back from the brink. The management of the Nigerian Economy needs to be anchored on tested economic principles that will propel sustainable growth and development. The economy craves a critical mass of private sector investment to stem the current slide and declines in the economy.

“We need to boost the confidence of investors for such private capital flows to happen. The economy desires policies that are coherent, consistent, coordinated, synchronised and transparent. The economy should be managed in such a way to harness the bountiful entrepreneurial energies and resourcefulness of the Nigerian people”.

For MAN, “The beauty of this team, apart from their pedigree, is its composition of private sector citizens who we believe will operate independently and effectively. The team we believe will not be shackled with the bureaucracy of government and hopefully the political interference and correctness of our clime. They are more likely to be receptive to a wide range of opinions and innovations, even if deferring from the norm”.

MAN’s Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, added: “Already on ground are policy initiatives such as the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the 2020-2022 Medium Term Fiscal Framework and Fiscal Strategy. It behoves the Council to recommend pragmatic programmes that will improve upon the achievements already made in some areas such as Ease of Doing Business in the country.

“The EAC is coming on the heels of the promised National Action Committee on African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AfCFTA is unarguably the most pressing preoccupation of continental economic actors in Africa today.“The right composition of the Committee will augur well for the needed synergy with the Council to boost our chances of being net gainers in the continental free trade area. We eagerly look forward to this prospect”.