Gates on Nigeria’s economic priorities
Eyebrows were raised in high places in Nigeria recently when American businessman and founder of Microsoft Corporation Bill Gates advised the Federal Government to effect drastic changes to its economic development model in order to impact better on the Nigerian economy. In the advice which was delivered in his address to the meeting of the […]
Eyebrows were raised in high places in Nigeria recently when American businessman and founder of Microsoft Corporation Bill Gates advised the Federal Government to effect drastic changes to its economic development model in order to impact better on the Nigerian economy. In the advice which was delivered in his address to the meeting of the Expanded National Economic Council (ENEC) in Abuja which was specially convened for his participation, Gates tasked Nigerian leaders to invest in not just infrastructure but also in human capital.
According to him, Nigeria “has unmatched economic potential” and is rapidly approaching “upper middle income status” like Brazil, China and Mexico. But achieving the fullness of that status depends on what the leaders do with the economy. Gates also took a swipe at government’s recently launched Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). He said while the plan identifies “investing in our people” as one of its three key strategic objectives, the implementation leaves much to be desired. He said its execution priorities do not reflect peoples’ needs but prioritized physical capital over human capital.
He then recommended that for the Nigerian economy to be anchored over the long term there must matching investment in both infrastructure and people, on a complementary and symbiotic basis. In his words, “people without roads, ports and factories can’t flourish. And roads, ports and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them can’t sustain an economy”. The Microsoft boss also described as abysmally low the government revenue being only 6% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which ranks among the lowest in the world. This, he said, accounts for the paucity of investible funds available to the Nigerian government for investment in education, health and other areas that promote quality of life for the citizenry.
Against the backdrop of the management of the Nigerian economy by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the intervention by Bill Gates stirred a lot of interest. While top government officials appeared to be unhappy with Gates’ evaluation of the Nigerian situation, many experts and other citizens thought he told the truth and government should better listen to what this leading businessman and philanthropist said.
For instance, the mismatch between the core targets of ERGP with the implementation strategies and outcomes was no mystery even before Bill Gates said so. Government’s celebration of the limited ‘successes’ of the plan are yet to enjoy popular acknowledgment across the country. True, the economy may have escaped the recession into which it dipped from the second quarter of 2016 but the impact of the turnaround is yet to be felt by a wide cross section of Nigerians.
This situation has been considered as the consequence of a distortion of the targets of the ERGP which has as its key objectives restoring growth, investing in our people and building a globally competitive economy. Of the three key objectives of ERGP, the second one is most topical as without it the others will remain stillborn. Mr. Bill Gates’ emphasis on this objective of human capital development as primary is a wakeup call for government to alter its emphasis in ERGP, as many experts had earlier demanded.
It now remains to be seen what the government will do with the homily of Mr. Gates who as the world’s richest man with his Microsoft Corporation – a most successful global brand, qualifies to speak truth to power and did so to the Nigerian leadership. This is hoping that as the government has responded to his advice by promising to return to the drawing board over the ERGP, it will match words with action.