According to an economist, Professor Akpan Ekpo, who spoke in Lagos, Nigeria has attained 50 years of Independence, yet there has been no major improvement in her socio-economic indices..
Ekpo, who was delivering a keynote lecture at the Wilson Badejo Foundation (WBF), Fifth Annual Lecture, with the theme: ‘Nigeria’s Great Resources and the Paradox of Economic Poverty,’ in Lagos, said, “Despite the various efforts put in place by many stakeholders to check the rising rate of poverty, the rate of unemployment is growing faster than the growth of the economy, especially as the growth witnessed over the years has not contributed to curbing the unemployment situation and this is so, because Government has merely been paying lip service to solving the unemployment problems in the country .”
Continuing, he stated, “According to government statistics, in the last five years, the economy has experienced an average growth rate of seven per cent. In the first quarter of 2011, the economy grew by only 6.8 per cent. However, the growth is non-employment generating. It is a jobless growth.”
“Furthermore, if the base year for computing GDP is changed as being proposed, then it would be more of a paper growth rate.
“The current annual rate of inflation is 12.5 per cent; it is double digit and High rate of inflation hurts the poor more ,since the rich can draw on savings to purchase needed goods and services.
“The official rate of unemployment is 23.9 per cent as at November, 2011. This represents an increase when compared to about 21 per cent in 2010. It is even higher among youths and other vulnerable groups.
“Also, disturbing is that rural unemployment is increasing. The high rates of unemployment increase the number of poor people. It is interesting to note that the rate of unemployment is increasing faster than the growth of the economy – another disturbing trend. The question to address therefore is: where is the so called average growth , analysts say even coming from? I would rather believe Nigeria as a nation is not even growing at all ”
Akpan argued that the manufacturing sub-sector contributes about 3.5 per cent to GDP in the last six years, adding that the 2011–2015 Medium–term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) is making no progress and thus the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP would remain at four per cent signalling no meaningful change in the structure of the economy.
Stressing further, he said, “Today our economy is dependent on oil with economic growth recording only seven per cent. And poverty index is about 70 percent. Furthermore, human inequality is high.
Several governments in Nigeria have always claimed to fight poverty. Several programmes costing
billions of naira have been designed and sometimes implemented partially to tackle poverty.
“At the end, these poverty programmes only make the poor poorer, and the rich have become richer by looting or stealing the money meant to tackle poverty. In addition, there are huge NGOs with interest in poverty alleviation. Not withstanding all these, no positive results”
“Lending rates are high averaging about 22 per cent, thus, inhibiting the growth of the real sector. All these show that the economy is in a state of stagnation. If the situation is not reverse, then the state of poverty will persist increasingly,” he lamented.
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