The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has advocated some policy measures for implementation by the Federal Government in order to improve the performance of the Nigerian economy in terms of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP’s) growth rate.
In a release issued following the release of the nation’s GDP rate by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the third quarter of this year (Q3 2024), the group noted that though the economy grew faster by 3.5% in the quarter under review compared with the 2.5% and 3.2% growth recorded in Q3 2023 and Q2 2024, respectively, there was still much to be done to optimize the economic potential for improved performance in the years ahead.
While noting that the Oil and gas, Non-oil and Services sectors recorded growth in Q3 this year, the NESG stated that the economic growth in the quarter was primarily driven by the Services sector (with a growth of 5.2 percent), followed by Industry (2.2 percent) and Agriculture (1.1 percent).
The group pointed out that despite the improvement in the GDP, the recent flooding in Borno State, which had already disrupted the early crop harvest season in the state, should provide a warning signal to other major food-producing regions to avert similar occurrences.
According to the NESG, to reverse the slowdown in Crop production and the Agricultural sector subsequently, the government should complement efforts to curtail insecurity with climate-resilient measures to mitigate the adverse impact of natural occurrences such as flooding and erosion, as it would help improve agricultural productivity and reduce the rising food inflation.
In addition, it advocated that the non-oil Industrial activities required urgent support from the Federal Government to improve their performance.
On the Manufacturing sector, which accounted for 67.6% of the total non-oil industry GDP in the quarter under review, but continued to struggle and recorded a growth of 0.9 percent in the quarter due to the subdued performance of the critical sub-sectors–Cement, Textiles, and Food, Beverages & Tobacco, the NESG charged the government to provide stimulus, as well as, an enabling policy and regulatory environment to reduce the cost of doing business.
It further advocated: “In addition, despite being the best growth performer, growth in the Services sector was sub-optimal as other key sub-sectors, including Trade and Real Estate, lagged the performances of the ICT and Finance sectors.
“To ensure that the growth momentum in the Services sector is sustained, there is a need to improve consumer spending, ensure exchange rate stability and provide a supportive policy environment”, the group added.
