The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN is set to discuss Nigeria’s economic recovery and growth at its 45th annual general meeting scheduled to hold in Lagos.
Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs MAN president of the Association said the president, Muhammadu Buhari is expected as Special Guest during the meeting.
Jacobs said the theme of the AGM is Recovery and Growth of the Nigerian Economy.
He said activities for the AGM are broken into two parts with day one being 13th September which is a private session, starting at 12noon and will be dovetail Into evening interactive session with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Controller General of Customs, Nigeria Customs Services and the Public session featuring Manufacturers Annual Lecture at 12noon on day 2, 14th September.
According to Jacobs, The former president of the United Republic of Tanzania, His Excellency, Mr Benjamin William Mkapa will deliver the public lecture on “Sustaining Economic Recovery: Gleaning From the Tanzania Experience ” . Our choice of the speaker was based on his experience in managing an economy that Experienced serious economic challenges, like ours.
Prior to his Excellency’s assumption of office in 1995, Tanzania’s economy was State-controlled but by 2005 when His Excellency completed his tenure, Tanzanian economy moved from a command economy to a market economy. We believe that the valuable experience he will share with us will further enrich our macroeconomic policy thrust.
Commenting on National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, report of Nigeria’s exit from recession, the MAN president noted that, “It may be true to say that the economic growth rate of 0.55 per cent is good, the question remain is this growth real, is it sustainable and can it engender inclusiveness? Technically inclusivity is not something one can assume.
The impact of a positive improvement like this should ideally be felt by all classes of citizens in our country before one can boldly assert that a growth experience is inclusive. This notwithstanding, based on the content of the Report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), it appears the growth rate is a positive development and that the Nigerian economy has summarily exited recession in the second quarter of 2017 after five consecutive quarters of contraction”.
He said, that MAN believes that, with appropriate mix of policies and concerted efforts of all stakeholders, the growth rate would eventually become inclusive and impact the lives of over 180million Nigerians. “We also believe that our government could learn one or two things from the Tanzanian experience and apply them to addressing our challenges while also adopting our home grown policies and strategies towards resolving challenges of the economy”, he added.