An economist and Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Bismarck Rewane has said that building strong institutions is key for Nigeria to achieve desired economic growth.

He spoke at the 2019 Time Management and Productivity/Nigeria’s Employee of the Year Award Summit (TAMS/NEYA Summit) held in Lagos.

He said: “There are three variables for economic growth. They are good leadership, sound policies and strong institutions. A combination of the three will still produce the desired level of growth. But where institutions are weak, whatever growth is achieved is not sustainable and will eventually come back to zero”.

According to him, it is regrettable that Nigeria continues to trumpet its abundant potential due to the richness in human and natural resources yet little is being done to harness this richness. He admonished the country to urgently start to work on the famed potential to achieve economic growth. Rewane stated that labour productivity in the country is very poor and that if that must be corrected to achieve Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth that is commensurate with our size and resources, then the economy must make hard choices.

“GDP growth can be achieved if we fix our weak infrastructure. The power sector problem, for instance, continues to be a huge burden with the sector hampered by enormous debt overhang and the inability to attract fresh financing. But this can easily be corrected if the debts are converted to equities,” he said. The financial expert also called for a review or the elimination of the fuel subsidy regime and the restructuring of the exchange rate management to make it more efficient.

Other stakeholders at the summit equally stressed the need for an urgently overhaul of the nation’s infrastructure, particularly in the education sector.

The TAMS/NEYA summit is organised yearly by SB Telecoms and Devices, a provider of time management-focused human resources management solutions to organisations.