President Muhammadu Buhari, Wednesday lamented Africa’s apparent
economic stagnation and backwadness despite its huge prospect over the
past few years,
Buhari, who was guest writer for Bloomberg, the US business and
financial information company, made the observation in an article
titled, “Making Africa Rising a Reality, which was published on
Bloombergview on a day he also unfolded his administration’s investor
friendly agenda to the US-Africa Business Forum in New York.
According to him, Africa Rising was until a few years ago, a dominant
theme in conversations about the global economy, but regretted that the
enthusiasm has since waned such that in newsrooms and think tanks and
conference panels, “Africa Rising!” has given way to a more questioning
“Africa Rising?”
While some of that pessimism may be justified, we do not have the luxury
of distracting ourselves with lamentations about our current
circumstances. Instead of hoping for commodity prices to rise, African
countries should seize the opportunities that these times present — not
least here at today’s U.S.-Africa Business Forum — to lay a foundation
for the kind of economic growth that transforms the lives of our people.
Buhari said, one of Africa’s biggest challenges during the boom years
was that it failed to convert the benefits of high commodity prices into
more jobs and significant improvements in standards of living. Hence
the great debate, during those years, about how to ensure that the
growth became “inclusive.”
“Now that we are face to face with the vulnerabilities somehow hidden
during the years of plenty, we should turn away from the unhelpful
habits of the past and chart a new course. Since I signed the 2016
budget into law in May, Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance has released more
than 400 billion naira for infrastructure spending — more than the total
amount spent in 2015,” he said. He also noted that in the face of
dwindling oil revenues, his government was turning to debt and hasbegan
raising a $1 billion Eurobond, the first in three years. “We are also
raising debt from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the
Chinese Ex-Im Bank and other development finance partners.”
He said, “Unlike in the past, when borrowed funds were frittered away on
unproductive ventures, we will ensure their investment in the revival
of stalled road, rail, power and port projects, and in agricultural
initiatives that will significantly boost domestic production of food.
For far too long we have under-invested in infrastructure — the most
critical element for creating sustainable economic growth. The net
effect: an avoidably high cost of doing business in Nigeria,,” he
boosted.
But even more important than what the government is able to spend is the
limitless investment potential of the private sector. This is why one
of our main priorities is creating an environment in which
private-sector capital can thrive. We are in particular using
Public-Private Partnership models to support game-changing
private-sector projects in power, refining, gas transportation and
fertilizer production.
We are also putting in place measures to ensure that monies intended to
revamp our infrastructure do not end up in the pockets of corrupt
officials and their collaborators. Already we are investigating the
theft of several billion dollars in public funds by the previous
administration. We are not only bringing these corrupt officials to
justice, we are also setting up systems to make it impossible for such a
grievous abuse of public trust to happen again. And of course, we are
as committed to playing by the rule of law as we are to accounting for
every naira and recovering them for our treasury. These were funds meant
to build roads and railway lines and hospitals and schools, and to
equip our military — which has for the last seven years been fighting
one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the world.
In that regard, we are already seeing the positive results of our
anti-corruption efforts. Long starved of both materiel and morale by the
corruption in the military’s upper echelons, our reinvigorated troops
have now put Boko Haram permanently on the back foot. Some of the more
than 2 million persons displaced by Boko Haram have started returning to
their homes. Just last week, the people of Nigeria’s northeast
celebrated their first incident-free Eid in years.
Our troops have rescued thousands of men, women and children trapped in
areas held by Boko Haram. To meet their urgent humanitarian needs, we
are working with the United Nations and other partners to provide food,
medical help and shelter. We will strive to ensure that no victim is
left behind, including the 219 Chibok girls who have, since their
abduction in April 2014, served as a global symbol of the war against
Boko Haram and a reminder of the horrors that it has inflicted on
innocent Nigerians.
Even though the times are still dire, our economic recovery plan is
already showing positive results. Investment’s share in gross domestic
product is at its highest since 2010. Inflation is slowing;
manufacturing confidence is rising. People are seeing and seizing
opportunities to make money catering to the needs of Africa’s most
populous country. Finally, our Social Investment Program — the most
ambitious in Nigeria’s history — will kick off this month. In its first
year it will provide cash transfers to 1 million of our poorest people,
hot meals to 5 million primary-school children, cheap loans to more than
1 million artisans and traders, and job opportunities in health care,
agriculture and software and hardware development for half a million
young people.
The journey ahead remains long and difficult. Our double-digit
inflation, currency turmoil and downgraded ratings will not vanish
overnight. We also know that the current recession is partly driven by
the production outages in Nigeria’s Delta region, and we are confident
that growth will accelerate as problems in that region are resolved.
But the real story here is not the challenges, which are all too
visible, but the opportunities. We have learned the necessary lessons.
We will ensure that Nigeria does not slip back into a lazy and dangerous
dependence on the price of crude oil. We will continue to insist on
transparency and accountability in the use of government funds. And we
will build an economy that prioritizes the ease of doing business and
investing, and that thrives on the entrepreneurial energy and ingenuity
of our people.
To achieve these objectives, Nigeria needs robust and reliable
partnerships such as we have with the United States. This is why I value
the Commercial and Investment Policy Dialogue that we have just
launched, and which we shall announce at today’s U.S.-Africa Business
Forum.
The months ahead will show not only that Nigeria is on the rise, but
that this “Rising” is real and lasting — one that touches not just the
statistical databases, but the lives of the people who elected us to
deliver positive change.
