Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has said that for the country to move up the global ladder, social reforms and investment that assure inclusive growth for majority of Nigerians are compulsory.

Professor Osinbajo told captains of industry and economists at the Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Tuesday that while insecurity is a big distraction that must be tackled with grassroots education and job creation for the majority of the youths, social investment and intervention must be given to the population of the poor in the country.

“There is no way it can work, that you would have the number of the poor that we have and you would not do some kind of social protection.

“On the average, under a million people in this country die every year from poverty related ailment. What type of social interventions can we really do and are affordable”, Prof. Osinbajo questioned.

Economics experts expressed concern over Nigeria’s persistent economic downturn to the effect that small African countries such as Uganda with only 41 million population, rank higher than Nigeria in the global competitiveness index.

They said that Nigeria has reached a point where it must make tough choices that would achieve competitiveness, inclusive growth and sustainability.

The Nigerian Economic Summit is the first in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. It is also the first summit to have an all-inclusive agenda which focused on how to achieve competitiveness and inclusive growth in a sustainable way, in a non-oil economy.

The Chairman of Nigerian Economic Summit, Mr Kyari Bukar, said that the continued down-turn evident on different global indexes, is serious cause for worry, necessitating an urgent boost in economic competitiveness.

Of the policy options open to Nigeria, the optimistic scenario was said to be most in line with the agenda of the present administration which experts said required strong collaboration and determination to work.