A former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu, has cautioned the federal government against any form of new foreign borrowing.
Mr. Moghalu said this at the 5th Goddy Jidenma Foundation Public Lecture, held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Wednesday.
Speaking at the event, he warned that given the Nigerian government’s declining revenue profile, further indebtedness is not sustainable and will likely lead to a debt crisis.
The Fletcher School professor recommended that for Nigeria to be economically transformed, the government must establish an Economic philosophy from which its economic vision will be derived, and set out a vision that will drive economic policy and management.
He said, “Such a vision must make clear the respective roles of the state and the market, and its position on capitalism and its various adaptations. The economic ecosystem will operate and be managed within this framework.
“Nigeria has failed to achieve intensive and effective economic growth because the country’s economy is managed mostly on an ad-hoc, reactive basis. It is a ‘survival’ economy in which most governments have had no real economic vision or a strategy to execute such a vision successfully. Most damaging, there is little interrogation of either received wisdom based on global economic policy “fashions” or of the country’s own policy assumptions that are consistently long on populism and short on substance.”
Themed ‘The Challenge of Economic Growth in Nigeria’, the public lecture was organised by the Goddy Jidenma Foundation to celebrate the legacy of the late Godwin Nwaolisa Jidenma.
According to the convener, Ije Jidenma, the public lecture, which is meant to elevate public speaking, includes thought-leadership discussions that would contribute significantly to the socio-economic development of Nigeria and Africa.
Guests at the event included a former chairman, the Nigerian Economic summit group, Mohammed Hayatudeen, and economist and politician, Pat Utomi .
