Nigerian President Jonathan Says Economy Expanding

Federal Republic of Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan has been sworn-in for a four year term in office as leader of Africa's most populous state. Over 30 delegations attended from various countries., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Nigeria’s economy expanding, says Jonathan

Posted by: Vincent Ikuomola, AbujaPosted date: November 23, 2012In: Business
The Nation, Nigeria

Nigeria’s economy is growing at a fast rate, President Goodluck Jonathan has said.

This, he said, was as a result of the various crucial economic policies made by the government.

Jonathan, who stated this at the summit of Heads of State and Governments of the Group of Eight Developing Nations (D-8) in Islamabad, Pakistan yesterday, said with the high rate of expansion, the economy is also offering high rate of returns on investments.

As part of the efforts to sustain the growth, he said his administration has introduced more investor-friendly measures.

He said: “The Nigerian economy is not only expanding at a fast rate, but also offers very high rate of returns on investments. Only recently, we adopted more investor friendly measures, such as a new long stay visa policy for investors and businessmen and women wishing to do business in our country.

“We have also strengthened the Bureau for Public Procurement to ensure transparency in the tender process for contracts.”

The President also told his colleagues that the efforts of his administration are beginning to produce positive results.

On the gains of D-8, Jonathan said the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture embarked on a trade mission to explore opportunities for joint venture cooperation to three D-8 countries.

“I believe this is a cooperation model we can all build on, not just to increase D-8 intra-trade volume, but to make our organisation a major actor in the global economic system.

“With a population of over one billion, D-8 shares a sizeable volume of international trade. If we cooperate and increase the volume of trade among D-8 countries, sooner than later, D-8 will be one of the leading global financial players.

“The significant increase in the number of cooperative endeavours by member states in the last two years provide evidence of our collective commitment to improve coordination and strengthen cooperation in the D-8’s major priority economic areas, namely, agriculture, food security, trade, industrial cooperation, transportation and energy,” he added.

Consequently, he said Nigeria was happy to be part of the growing D-8 success story.

He said it was to expand trade and economic collaboration among members, and to ensure that the D-8 remains relevant as a multi-lateral platform for trade promotion that Nigeria hosted 15 D-8 meetings out of the 36 meetings organised by the secretariat in the last two years.

He said the interactions facilitated useful exchange of ideas and expertise, as well as serving as building blocks of productive and profitable partnerships among member countries.

The President said by focusing on the major priority economic areas and promoting cooperation in the field of SMEs, member countries would be able to create employment opportunities, tackle poverty and bring prosperity to their citizens.

The President said the best gift the group could give their countries was to accelerate efforts to achieve the targets of the D-8 Roadmap for the Second Decade of Cooperation as adopted at the 6th Summit in Kuala Lumpur in 2008.

He observed that though the D-8 is moving in the right direction, there is still much work to do to enable the group to achieve its fullest potential.

Earlier, while handing over the leadership of the group, Jonathan said throughout the period he was at the saddle, he was guided by the vision to nurture the organisation in a way that would empower the private sector in member countries to be the driving force propelling various programmes and activities.

He said he believed that was the right road to take, because it reflects their shared vision to limit the role of governments in the day-to-day activities of the D-8 to merely that of catalysts and enablers of economic and trade cooperation among various countries.