Monetary & Fiscal policies crucial to economic growth, says Ezekwesili

By Joy Obakeye 

The Convener/Chairman, FixPolitics, and Founder School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili has advised the federal government to put in place measures to kick start economic growth, through sound monetary policy, and fiscal policies combined to give back macroeconomic stability.

Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, who was also the former World Bank Vice President disclosed this while sharing her view on barriers to SMEs as a keynote speaker at the 5th anniversary of Caladium Lagos SME BootCamp in partnership with FedhaGap held recently in Lagos. 

According to her, “you need macro-economic stability which means less inflation, less variability in the exchange rate, the type of challenges we have with access to the foreign exchange rate.

She explained that many sectors need serious reforms to enable them to function and create the impetus for economic activities within them. 

“Whether you are talking about health, education, power, aviation, tourism and agriculture, they need structural reforms.”

“There is nothing in African or Nigeria economy that puts us in the realm of exceptionalism,” 

“The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted to 2.25 per cent as a result of the effects of inflation, and foreign exchange pricing, “because when you denominate in naira, you have to convert into current price levels.”

Speaking further, she stressed that an entrepreneur must invest in knowledge. 

“Must be able to understand his or her market and the ecosystem in which you operate. You must unlock the resource of partnership. Your partners are not necessarily people that buy your product, but, they can clear several barriers and open doors that you may not have thought about and then money. Once you unlock the resource of partnership,  It brings you into opportunities that will bring you money. 

“And in the financing, you need to understand the various streams of financing that are possible for you. Some businesses have gotten into trouble by not knowing the type of finance they need. They collect money and they could not pay it back.” 

She stated that the growth pad of SMEs is an understanding of what growth is and an understanding of it is what will enable us to realise that growth is simply removing the barriers increase, ”Because if you remove the barriers increase, they will be growth. And it means that we must identify them, most times we miss that and are busy supporting what is not. Also, it is not just understanding the barriers, but the need to remove them speedily and remove them at scaled else, we are not going to achieve the most economic problem that our continent is still in,” she said. 

The Convener Lagos SME Bootcamp, Ayo Bankole-Akintujoye stated that the initiative started five years ago to help SMEs acquire skills that will make their businesses better managed. 

According to him, BootCamp has infused micro-grant and funding through federal government grants with Bootcamp serving as a tech platform used to finance their transactions with larger enterprises. “We have 5000 active community SMEs. We have seen some SMEs grow into winning awards both local and international recognition. We have helped brand businesses that were without brands. But, sufficient resources to provide support effectively is our challenge. We are getting more partnerships and things are picking up,” he said