Funmi Olaitan, Ibadan

Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Ibadan, Mr Ademola Oyejide, on Wednesday, lamented that Nigeria had not witnessed inclusive growth, saying the Federal Government must as a matter of urgency, establish and effectively implement an inclusive growth and development strategy.

The don while delivering the first Emmanuel Edozien Distinguished Service Fellow lecture organized by Department of Economics, said what Nigeria has been experiencing is ‘jobless growth’, stating that Nigeria had never witnessed inclusive growth, is not witnessing inclusive growth and may never witness inclusive growth unless the right policies are formulated and faithfully implemented.

Oyejide in the lecture titled, “Making Inclusive Growth Happen in Nigeria”, averred that for economic growth to be inclusive, it must create new employment opportunities that will allow the involvement of everybody in the production process.

While lamenting the dismal ranking of Nigeria on Inclusive Growth and Development Index Report of 2017 which put the country with a score of 3.07 and 71 out of the 79 developing countries, he insisted that this suggests that Nigeria’s performance had been weakening over the previous five years.

To achieve inclusive growth, the emeritus professor of economics called on Federal Government to ensure that “growth process is sufficiently employment-intensive in order to create opportunities for effective participation of people both in terms of generating the growth and sharing of benefits.”

According to the don, Nigeria must achieve a high stable and sustained long-term economic growth rate and enhance human capabilities in order that the labour force is continually enabled to seize employment opportunities being created by the growth process.

He said, “it is clear that the achievement of inclusive growth in any country must be based on rapid and sustained long-run economic growth which is generated by as many sectors of the economy which involves the participation of many people as possible in both the growth process and the sharing of the benefits of that growth. In addition, appropriate social protection and safety nets should be provided to cater for the vulnerabilities and risks encountered.”