Economy: Stakeholders call for deregulation, repositioning

Stakeholders in the nation’s banking industry, who gathered at the Lagos State University(LASU) on Wednesday to brainstorm on: ‘Deregulating the Nigerian Economy Towards Moving to the End of the Era of Oil,’ have canvassed deregulation as well as repositioning of the nation’s troubled economy.

The event was the annual public lecture of the Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Management Services, LASU, Ojo, Lagos, chaired by President and Chairman of Council for the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Prof Segun Ajibola.

According to the chairman, an economy that is over regulated cannot perform at its optimum level; thus the need for deregulation has become critical for the nation’s economic managers.

He said,“In the 60s our foreign exchange earnings came from Agriculture , 70 percent of our labour force relied on agriculture, as a country we were able to feed ourselves and export to other countries, we sustained that template till after independence, but immediately the Nigerian economy discovered oil, the Black Gold, we abandoned agriculture and solely rely on oil.”

Ajibola said thereafter the economy became over concentrated; and unfortunately; oil became the major source of income for Nigeria; adding that it is more unfortunate that the intricacies surrounding the mono -product is beyond Nigeria, thus causing the economy to be in a state of coma and hemorrhaging since in the 1970s.

“The power of Oil Producing Exporting Countries (OPEC) is beyond Nigeria as well as the international policies. Nigeria has little or no influence over oil, the politics of OPEC and the double standard that is being played by economic powers of the world has effect on the Nigerian economy,” he said.

He said about 60 per cent of Nigeria’s internal revenue comes from petroleum dependent saying the country has problem of distributing injustice because over 90 per cent of the economy is in the hands of less than 10 per cent of the total population, stressing that this is a political economy.

The Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Prof Banji Fajoyomi, said Nigeria has entered the last chance and the only way out is deregulation as he added that the country should move to knowledge economy.

According to the representative of the Managing Director, Nigerian Deposit of Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr. Patrick Sanni, he said: “No economy can survive without bank deposits.”

He, however, added that financial sector needs to be harmonized, while banking policies should be synergized, while governments should ensure policy consistency.

Esther Taiwo