Realnews Holds Third Anniversary Lecture

Fri, Nov 20, 2015
By publisher
5 MIN READ

Anniversary, BREAKING NEWS

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Realnews is the toast of Nigerian public who gather to witness the third anniversary lecture of the magazine on Thursday, November 19

By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Nov 30, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT  |

REALNEWS Magazine and Publications Limited rolled out the drums in celebration of its third anniversary with a lecture on the nation’s economy on Thursday, November 19.

The lecturer was Chukwuma Charles Soludo, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria with discussants from different fields of economy.

Maureen Chigbo, editor and publisher of the online magazine, said in her welcome address that the company focused its third anniversary lecture on the nation’s economy knowing full well that the economy was currently in the doldrums.

Chigbo said that the economic indicators in the country ranging from depleting foreign reserve as a result of fall in crude oil prices, depreciating value of the naira, the double digit interest rates, high rate of unemployment, especially amongst the youth to inflation rates which was now on the increase, showed that there was need for a rethink of the economic direction Nigeria. “This anniversary lecture is one of the ways Realnews is contributing to the development of our nation by providing a forum for professionals, scholars and prominent Nigerians to discuss and proffer ideas to resolve burning national issues,” she said.

Soludo, who delivered the key lecture on the theme: ‘Can a New Buharinomics Save Nigeria?’ advised the federal government on how best to revive the economy of the nation. (See Cover)

Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, Chairman of the occasion
Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, Chairman of the occasion

On his part, Abraham Nwankwo, director general, Debt Management Office, DMO, in his paper presentation titled ‘Supporting the Nigerian economy through debt management in normal and abnormal times,’ said the nation needed the debt resources in order to survive the present economic challenges caused by the fall in oil prices. According to him, proper management of debt resources by way of introducing appropriate measures was the only way to save the country from total economic meltdown.

“Even when the oil price was high, if you look at the budget you will find out that without borrowing there will be no capital projects. Going forward, all of us appreciate what have happened with the fall of oil prices. We appreciate that even before the fall of oil prices it had been established that Nigeria needed a minimum of $25 million investment per annum for the next five to seven years for it to cover infrastructural deficit. However, following the fall of oil prices, when you compare the annual inflow of oil revenue over the past three years before the mid 2014, we had about $16 billion per annum.

“This means in addition to the $25 million per annum needed to move forward, we now needed additional $16 billion per annum for us to fill the hole created by the fall of oil prices and also move ahead to cover the infrastructure deficit. The guest lecturer said the critical issues needed in order to these deficits are competitiveness and that is where the infrastructure comes in. Having adequate power supply, good roads and working rail system. “So competitiveness is necessary but it depends largely on infrastructure. The question now is giving the existing infrastructure deficit, giving additional resource hole created by the fall of oil prices, how do we move forward?” Nwankwo questioned.

In his presentation, Gimba Ya’u Kumo, managing director, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, who was represented by Yinka Fakeye, a manger of the bank, said the country needed to invest in mortgage and house in order to reduce the growing unemployment among the youths. In the paper titled ‘Boosting Revenue Generation through the Real Estate Sector in Post Oil Economy’ Kumo said currently, mortgage sector in Nigeria only contributes 1.5 percent to the GDP.

Nwankwo
Nwankwo

“We have not gotten to the level of other developing economics that their mortgage sector contributes as much as 30 percent. If we needed to grow the economy, mortgage sector is one of the areas we have to target. If we grow the economy, how does it translate into the betterment of the lives of people? This had always been the argument over the years. Banking sector are declaring profits every day, and we say the economy is growing but it doesn’t translate into the quality of lives of the people.

“Housing is also one of those sectors that will also grow the economy. The simple reason is home ownership. When a man becomes a home owner, his levels will change. Him owning a home moves him up the economic ladder, he also moves up to access to economic opportunities which he would not have otherwise have. In USA, there is what they called American dream which owns a home and once he owns a home he becomes open to some economic benefits. He can access credit.

“They can use their homes to get credits in order to better their lives. Our economic agenda should be how to generate employment. Studies have shown that when you build a three bedroom property, you generate 17 jobs. When we translate that into the promise that 1 million homes should be developed in the country, this will immediately translate into generating 17 million jobs. And I think that is what one of our economic agenda should be,” he said.

The occasion was attended by prominent Nigerians, editors, clergymen and traditional ruler. Among them were former bosses of Chigbo such as Yakubu Mohammed, deputy chief executive officer of Newswatch Communications Limited and Soji Akinrinade, editor in chief, Newswatch Communications Limited.

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