Devt planning, implementation key to national economic growth –SEC

By Chinwendu Obienyi

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has restated the need  for the government to focus on a step-by-step implementation of Nigeria’s National Development as a strategy to achieving economic growth in Nigeria.

Its Director General, Lamido Yuguda, stated this at the Nairametrics Economic Outlook webinar which held at the weekend in Lagos.

Yuguda who was represented by the Executive Commissioner (Operations) at SEC, Dayo Obisan, said productivity would alleviate poverty, noting that in Nigeria, a lot of policies have been put up, but the issue usually is the implementation of those policies.

He said Nigeria’s national development plan already has six objectives that touch on different sectors.

“Where we are now is not to spend more time writing new policies but we need to focus on the implementation of those policies – both the government and the citizenry,” Yuguda said.

When asked what policy should be brought to boost productivity in Nigeria he said, “What we need to look at is what we need to do to increase the level of implementation and actualising several plans.”

Speaking further, he said, “In my head, it’s about the implementation. Let’s talk about how to even boost productivity? And what does this productivity mean in the minds of people.”

Speaking on what other policies we are expected to see in order to drive GDP, he said “I think the main thing we need to do is for us to constantly appraise the situation and implement what we have already planned. A lot of these things have been crafted on paper.

“So instead of just advising, let’s just focus on the Nigerian National development plan because it has different tentacles spread across different sectors in terms of even the cluster areas that it wants to achieve. What else do we need at this time and going forward?”

“Let’s all just look at the National development plan, it is in there. All agencies and ministries will take away their beats from it, execute it, break it down whether laws need to be amended, whether rules need to be cracked, and whether stakeholder engagements need to be heard.

“We should just look at the National development plan and focus on implementing it step by step,” he added.