The South-West Regional Coordinator, Department For International Development, Sina Fagbenro-Byron, has advised the Federal Government of Nigeria to run with both vision 20:2020 and vision 2050, going by the prediction that Nigeria would be one of the top emerging economies.
While speaking on Sunrise Daily, Mr Fagbenro-Byron said the performance and focus on the vision 20:2020 afforded the nation the opportunity to be included as one of the MINT countries. “Plans for vision 2020 sort of put us on track to be even considered as the kind of emerging country that falls under the bracket of the MINT countries,” he said.
Analysts have said that the government should concentrate only on achieving vision 2020 as opposed to elongating the time to 2050. However, Mr Fagbenro-Byron said both plans are not mutually exclusive as vision 20:2020 plan was a perspective plan which could work together with the 2050 prediction.
He noted that “perspective plans are not mutually exclusive of each other” and so “the government should stick with the 2020 plan in ‘pari passu’ with the 2050 plan.”
On the agitation for the government to revitalize the manufacturing industry in order to give the economy a good boost, Mr Fagbenro-Byron stressed the need for caution and a holistic approach to the sector as it needed other support instruments such as education, micro-financing, micro-insurance.
“I think just like anything, you must start from the basics and manufacturing doesn’t have to be on the huge humongous scale. Something that is missing which probably exists in other countries where manufacturing has actually turned the corner is micro financing, micro insurance, small and medium scale enterprises,” he said.
He added that “someone has to do the nuts and bolts while the big businesses do the large scale production.
“You need engineers, huge capacity building and education.”
“The manufacturing sector has to be supported in terms of other hard services and should also be well financed,” Mr Fagbenro-Byron.
He mentioned that there were other issues tied to the sector including environmental issues, human resources and trade. “All these things have to be tracked and pursued holistically.”
Speaking about the quality of education obtainable in Nigerian schools, Mr Fagbenro-Byron stressed that there was a need to revisit the school curriculum in secondary schools, as current system being run was not “fit for purpose.”
He suggested that skill acquisition be added to the curriculum to groom students in the area of skills which would be added to their theoretical knowledge.