By Emeka Ejere

This was the consensus position of speakers at the third edition of Vanguard Economic Discourse on Thursday, January 17,  in Lagos, with the theme, “Human Development Index vs Economic Growth: Nigeria’s Policy Options”.

Fola Adeola, chairman, Fate Foundation, who gave the keynote speech, stressed that rather than what many think that once the economy is developed human development index follows, it is developing HDI that actually facilitate economic development.

“If you have excellent GDP growth year-on-year for five years, you will still have several people who are in poverty,” he noted.

He identified ignorance as one of the factors hindering the ability of an individual to make informed decisions for himself and his family.

Adeola urged policy makers to begin to focus on making Nigerians more productive both for themselves and for the country at large.

Also, one of the discussants, Doyin Salami, former member of Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, regretted that where Nigeria is today is where China was 40 years ago.

He said, “Forty years ago, 80 per cent of Chinese lived below poverty line. Today, less than 2 per cent do and China is still working hard to eradicate poverty completely.”

Salami, who was a discussant at the summit, described Nigeria as a nation that is dependent on oil “without knowing the unsustainability of our dependency.”

“If Nigeria does not achieve double digit growth and sustain it for about 10 years, the social consequence can better be imagined,” the erudite economist cautioned.

In his contribution, another discussant, Peter Ozo-Eson, general secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, argued that the nation’s economy may not be heading for the right direction as it had continuously ignored building human development index.

He said, “In the past, mainstream economy schools, and its economy teacher did not pay attention to the human development index, which was being pushed largely by the United Nations development community.

“Rather, we were fixated on growth and it was other developmental social sciences that kept bringing attention that we needed to focus on human development. When we looked clearly at what is development, it is on human welfare.

“That is why the concept of human development index as a more embracing concept that actually captures the welfare development of the human beings, has become something that we as a nation need to move to the centre stage in terms of policy formulations and planning.”

The event which was chaired by Shamsudeen Usman, former minister of national planning, had Ifie Sekibo, managing director, Heritage Bank, Muda Yusuf, director general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, as discussants.

Jan. 17, 2019 @ 18:13 GMT |