21 years after Nigeria returned to its longest running civilian rule, Africa business Radio has a conversation with Jide Akintunde, the Managing Editor of Financial Nigeria to review the nation's economic past, present and future. Akintunde shares his expert opinion on Africa's largest economy's nominal GDP rate increasing six-fold in 21 years as well as the nation's need to move from being an oil-sustained economy. He also touched on how Nigeria is perceived on corruption and a need for Nigerians to hold each other accountable if the country really wants to live up to its moniker as the Giant of Africa. 1. Let's start with the change of date from May 29 to June 12. What did you make of that decision then? 2. In the 21 years of civilian rule, Nigeria's GDP, according to World Bank data, has grown six-fold. In 1999, despite Nigeria's vast oil wealth, GDP was a mere 59.37 billion dollars. As at 2018, that figure has skyrocketed to $397bn. That's commendable. But per capita, the picture is totally different with AfDB data showing 152 million Nigerians live on less than 2 dollars a day. What's your response to that? 3. A sector-by-sector review of the Nigerian economy since return to civilian rule shows an improvement in every department but it's not the type of improvement Nigerians would like to see. To what extent have we failed to maximise the potentials of democracy/civilian rule to fast-track the infrastructural needs of the country? 4. Diversification from oil has been something Nigeria has been trying to achieve since the Green Revolution. Over 30years later, crude oil still makes up 95% of the country's export earnings and about 40% of government revenues, according to IMF data. Why has it been difficult returning to agriculture, which is the foundation upon which the economy was built? 5. Nigeria operates one of the most expensive among developing countries. According to a 2015 BudgIT data, Nigerian legislators receive annual salaries of between $150,000 and $190,000 per annum depending exchange rates. Some have called for a downward review of their earnings, while others have called for some government agencies to be scrapped as a way of reducing government spending so that those funds can be diverted to infrastructure development and other social welfare programmes. What's your take on this? 6. Corruption is still a challenge in Nigeria with Transparency International ranking the country 146 out 180 in its 2019 corruption perceptions index after a score of 29/100. In fact, the nation's Corruption Perception Index score has been flat for the past 8 years. What needs to be done for the country to change this perception?
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12 分
2020/06/1238 分
2020/05/053 分