Crusoe Osagie
2 May 2005
Lagos — The National Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mines and Agriculture has stated that the trend of development of the Nigerian economy since the beginning of 2005 is discouraging.
According to a report of the association presented by the president, Chief John Odeyemi, at their first quarterly council meeting in Ibadan, the development of the economy since the last quarter of 2004 till date has been discouraging to the private sector and other stakeholders who are eager for an improvement.
"An overview of the socio- economic and political development of the economy since the last quarter 2004 until date has not been encouraging as it has not shown much improvement as expected," it said. "And this is in spite of the concerted effort of the Federal and State government to reactivate and revitalise the economy through its many initiated policy reforms and recovery programmes such as the National Economic Empow-erment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), customs and ports reforms, power sector, procurement and civil service reforms and most recently the National Constitutional Reform Conference.
The NACCIMA report maintained that the empirical analysis of most economic and social aggregates have revealed that the economy, though showing minor traces of improvement in a few sectors, had remained stagnant in most.
"The economy has continued to experience difficulty arising from government policy inconsistency coupled with improper implementation of policies, deteriorating infrastructure facilities and perennial erratic power supply," it said.
NACCIMA's president ex-plained that the economy was still faced with high cost of loanable funds, multiplicity of taxes and regular harassment of business operators by government officials as well as insecurity of life and property.
NACCIMA also expressed their disappointment and dissatisfaction about the manner in which corruption has become a pervasive phenomenon in the country.
The chamber explained that the recent happenings in the National Assembly were a pointer to how deep corruption has eaten into the fabric of the Nigerian polity.
"With the recent case of the corruption saga at the national assembly, we appeal to all well meaning Nigerians in the public and private sectors to embrace the anticorruption drive of the president so that the generations to come will not have cause to find us wanting concerning this demon called corruption which has eaten deep into our system. This we can do by working in close partnership with the president to drastically minimise and eventually eradicate corrupt practices from our society"
He called on chamber members to adhere strictly to their ethics in the course of carrying out their businesses, both locally and internationally.
"We wish to enjoin all operators in the marketplace to live above board and embrace the spirit of good corporate governance in their public and private dealings. We also urge political parties Non governmental Organisations and Civil Society Organisations to form a stronger partnership on this crusade by beaming the search light on themselces to ensure that the economy isput on the right track"
The association noted with serious concern the delay in the budgetary process which had become a regular practice of the government.
NACCIMA stressed that the budgetary delays had created doubts in the minds of Nigerians and the business community locally and internationally on the capability of both arms of government in budget crafting to streamline the budgetary process for speed, effectiveness and greater inclusiveness as deliverables.
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