Poor infrastructure development bane of economic growth, says ACEN

FG is resuscitating economy, Udoma assures
The Association for Consulting Engineering in Nigeria (ACEN) has urged stakeholders and government to enact policies that will address infrastructural deficits in the country.

It stressed that the stability of Nigeria’s economy depends on how well the country’s infrastructural development is sustained.President of ACEN, Mr. Charles Yele Akindayomi, who stated this at the ACEN’s yearly Conference/Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Dinner, tagged: “Addressing the Challenges of Engineering Infrastructural Development in Nigeria,” stressed that part of the challenges limiting infrastructural development in the country include lack of appropriate and sufficient local expertise in building technologies and lack of widespread access to modern engineering technologies, among others.

Meanwhile, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, has said that the Federal Government is making good progress in its efforts to revive and resuscitate the economy.

The minister, who affirmed that the economy is not sufficiently diversified, called on everyone to work together to achieve a new Nigeria, stressing the need for us as a nation to reduce our dependence on crude oil to export of other goods and services.Udoma stated this yesterday in his keynote address at the 42nd yearly conference of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN).said if the citizens consistently and faithfully continue with the implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), Nigeria would become an economic production powerhouse.

He said: “We will be able to feed ourselves and have extra for export. We will be able to manufacture many of our basic requirements. We will be able to grow our non-oil exports to overtake our oil exports in value. We have been implementing the ERGP for only 18 months.

“If we stay the course and continue implementing the programme in a focused and consistent manner, we will surely have the Nigeria of our dreams where we grow what we eat, consume what we make and produce what we use.”

Similarly, the conference chairman, Olusegun Osunkeye, who called for a desperate need to diversify to move the country towards a resilient economy, said Nigeria needs a 10-year development plan that would be reviewed every five years, irrespective of which party is in power or government.