PRE-DEGREE/CERTIFICATE REGISTRATION/SCHOOL FEES

Experts Proffer Solutions To Nigeria’s Economic Recession

As the nation continues to groan under the effects of the ongoing economic recession that has adversely affected the standard of living and increased tension, experts in the University have proffered solutions that could change the country’s economic fortunes for the better in the short, medium and long terms.
Weighing-in on the issue, a rural development specialist in the Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Stephen Tamuno, told our Correspondent that “the inflationary trend currently being experienced in the country was a manifestation of structural distortions in the economy which will require political will and the best brains to tackle. There also has to be a national rebirth to move the nation forward; our values are so distorted that we are no longer able to differentiate what is good from evil practice. No country can continue to carry on the way we are doing and survive,” he said, describing the biggest challenge facing the country today as endemic corruption that must be tackled in an honest manner if the country hopes to come out of economic recession. 
Advocating an increase in the nation’s production base, Professor Chinedu Ezirim of the Department of Finance and Banking in the Faculty of Management Sciences, noted that when production of goods are increased and in good supply relative to demand, prices would automatically drop. “Encouraging production in every sector of the economy will check inflation and bring down prices of goods and services,” he said.  
Professor Ezirim explained that increased production would enable Nigeria to reach out to the rest of the world, pointing out that an increase in export of goods and services would enable the country generate more foreign exchange earnings that would in turn bring down inflation and improve the standard of living of the citizens. “More foreign exchange would translate into value appreciation for the naira which will rub off positively on other aspects of the economy that are connected with the exchange rate,” he said.
“Our exports need not be limited to oil alone. There is a need to diversify the export base of the country which will result in the diversification of goods and services,” Professor Ezirim submitted, calling for a multi-product economy, instead of the country’s current mono-product economy that is dependent on global oil pricing benchmarks that Nigeria does not control.
In his contribution, Dr. Godly Otto also of the Department of Economics,  noted that the Nigerian economy went into recession because it had hit more than two negative growth rates in  just one quarter, stating that as part of the remedial measures to negotiate it out the wood, the economy needed to create an attitude of  real income earning.  
“Many Nigerians resort to free money like the popular MMM that is the rave of the moment. Executive begging, corruption and resort to kidnapping for ransom are some of the easy money-generating short-cuts that hurt the country’s economy. Such negative practices will not add value to the economy and any economy in which people do not work to earn a decent income will not be productive,” he noted.
Canvassing an equal opportunity economic structure, Dr. Otto recommended that people should return to hard work as a source of earning income, rather than the current habit of depending on easy money which usually did not guaranteed a decent living. Stressing that the economy will grow if the sector was productive, he identified heightened insecurity as a major challenge to direct foreign investment in the nation’s economy. On the move by the Federal Government to secure a new loan facility, Dr. Otto submitted that the challenges associated with utilization of such a loan facility far outweighed the advertised benefits. He said that stringent economic management procedures and debt servicing could pose major challenges to managers of the economy in the long run.

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