IN realisation of the dangers posed by unbridled population growth, the Federal Government is currently working on a new policy on the population to determine how many children a woman will be allowed to bear.

She also expressed regret at the controversy generated over the imposition of fine on MTN Communications on repatriation of profits.

Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed made this disclosure during a plenary discussion on “Sustainable Economic Opportunities: Ending the Vicious Cycle on Tuesday during the 2018 Nigerian Economic Summit.

She said the government was presently consulting with both religious and traditional leaders across the country on the issue after which a policy will be formulated on the matter.

Zainab who admitted that government was not doing enough in the areas of job creation and social investment programmes.
She also admitted that government officials needed the input of private sector operatives on how to develop the economy.

“We must find out ways to engage our youths to be active, ensure that transportation is effective, available and reasonably priced.”

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The Minister said there was a need to support the informal sector of the economy so as to absorb the current 40 per cent unemployment figure.

She gave the assurance that government would not stop because of the coming elections as “Mr President has mandated some of us to concentrate on the economy and shun election matters.”

On MTN, which had become an albatross on foreign investments, Zainab described the incident as “ very damaging for us.”
She, however, blamed the telecommunications company for the episode because of its refusal to provide the required information to settle the dispute.

She said for a long time, MTN failed to cooperate with CBN auditors who were mandated to resolve the matter.

Assuring investors, Zainab said there has not been any occasion in recent times when investors had difficulty in repatriating their capital.

Another member of the panel, Dr Doyin Salami of the Lagos Business School declared that Nigeria must reverse the massive movement into poverty.

He noted that of the 1.5 million candidates that yearly seek admission into universities, only 350,000 are admitted while less than half of them eventually get employment after graduation.

He identified lack of capacity as a major problem of the government saying “it is erroneous to assume that government always knows there is a problem.

“And when they know there is a problem, they may not have the wherewithal to solve it. We must deal with the problem of capacity in government.”

Salami identified abysmally low wages as a major contributor to low-level corruption in the country decrying that there was an upward concentration of income declaring “ we need to go back and review our reward and remuneration system.”

Also contributing, Director, School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, United States of America, Prof. Peter Lewis observed that the presence of corruption in the system was not an excuse for poverty and underdevelopment.

He, however, insisted that the reward system must be attractive.

“There must be po!icy consistency to give assurance to investors.”

He said there were enough talents and good policies in Nigeria but identified inconsistencies, lack of collective action, coordination and government inability to galvanise citizens as major reasons for lack of development in Nigeria.

In his view, the executive arm of government must show a sense of urgency and that it is important to have a stable and capable economic management team in place.

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