Mr Clement Agba, the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning says economic prosperity depends on the productivity in which human and natural resources are employed.
Agba said this in Abuja on Thursday during 23rd Conference of Inter-governmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICE) for West Africa.
The conference has the theme: “Maximising investments to achieve optimum demographic dynamics in West Africa in a COVID 19 era: the Imperative of Building Back Better”.
He said that the sub-region needed to put in place a modern well-regulated financial sector that would turn savings into productive investments, invest in research, development, innovation and technology.
Agba said there was also need to invest in hard and soft infrastructure as well as sustained encouragement of entrepreneurship and innovation, develop value chains in agriculture and processing of natural.
“There is also need to identify and focus on specific industries for job creation,”Agba said.
The minister said that ICE conferences were to address human development issues in Africa, especially in areas such as health, discuss the negative impact of COVID-19 crisis.
Agba express optimism that the conference would provide solutions to educational system in Africa and address the poor access to decent employment and income and the challenges of population growth.
“For instance, it is estimated that Nigeria’s population will hit over 411million by 2050 with 65 per cent of the population under the age of 35.”
He said that the high population growth rate was a matter of concern as there was need to cater for the rising population by stimulating the economy to engender growth and create jobs.
Agba said that to achieve this, “we need to create economic activities that open up productive sectors and take full advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.
“It now behoves on you the experts to identify critical enablers that will move the sub-region forward.
“There is need to develop and deploy human capital as well as improve our infrastructure stock for higher productivity and competitiveness,” he said.
Agba said that achieving all the above, a competitive private sector economy that would engender economic prosperity for ECOWAS countries and manage their demography must be built.
The minister said that having recognised the importance of planning in national development, “we are developing the successor plans to the NV20:2020 and ERGP tagged: “Nigeria Agenda 2050 and Medium Term National Development Plan (MTNDP), 2021to 2025.
“This conference therefore provides an excellent opportunity to discuss and agree on the pathways for economic growth and sustainable development of the sub-region.”
