Former Group Managing Director, Ecobank Transnational, Mr. Arnold Ekpe, has advised the federal government to reflate the economy through infrastructure development to create economic activities.
This is as former Managing Director of defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc, Erastus Akingbola also asked the government to change the current foreign exchange policy to encourage people with dollars to bring them into the country.
Akingbola said that stringent policies should be curtailed in order to bring the country out of recession.
But giving details of his advice, Ekpe said that effective power sector was paramount for the growth and development of other sectors of the economy.
He said, “A lot of countries had moved ahead of Nigeria. South Africa now is number one in Africa. We should try and regain our position, we have the people, and we have oil and other things. We need to take an action now.”
Ekpe said that government and regulators should work together to deepen the nation’s bourse.
He called for a balance in monetary and fiscal policy for the country to move forward, he added that government must promote the non-oil export sector to increase the country’s export revenue.
He also called for tax rebate and tax holiday for local industries to encourage local manufacturers.
Speaking on the theme of the conference “Financial turbulence and regulatory framework in a recession economy,” Akingbola said that government must encourage entrepreneurs and exporters because they were the only ones that would create the needed jobs, and called for reduction in the cost of governance, noting that Nigerian political system was very expensive.
