Essential Ndubuisi
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre/Transparency International Nigeria (CISLAC/TI-Nigeria) has called on the incoming administration of President-elect Bola Tinubu to prioritize reforms that will revive the ailing economy and encourage export diversification.
Speaking at a media interactive session during the ongoing spring meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, USA, CISLAC’s Executive Director Auwal Musa Rafsanjani reiterated the need for the government to strengthen the ease of doing business and block leakages for corruption.
Rafsanjani stated that the incoming government must sustain strategic policies that have the potential to drive economic growth and development. He emphasized that the government must avert placing priorities that would reverse some of the current policies and ensure the effective implementation of new ones.
To encourage long-term development, the government must ensure that borrowed funds are invested wisely in the economy’s value-added sectors and borrowing should be done on conditions consistent with entrenching debt sustainability. The government should also prioritize engagement and enlightenment of taxpayers, create incentives to increase exports and adopt anti-corruption policies and implementation.
Rafsanjani also called for an efficient tax administration that would ensure greater compliance with remittances and the adoption of special tax drives and campaigns. He added that the government should reduce reliance on borrowing from international capital markets and prioritize the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to enhance Nigeria’s productivity and competitiveness.
The Executive Director concluded that the government should create an enabling environment for private-sector-led infrastructure development to address the infrastructure gap. He stressed that the Nigerian economy must grow at seven to eight per cent a year for five to 10 years based on an investment-led strategy to avoid the possibility of multi-dimensional poverty, debt, and insecurity in the next decade.
