The Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) summit finally came to an end yesterday. During the opening ceremony and introduction speech on the state of the economy by Dr. Doyin Salami, Chairman, NESG Board Committee on research and publication said that “If made-in-Nigeria must succeed, it should not be the challenge of the federal government alone. All the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital territory (FCT) must have a role to play,”
Dr. Salami lamented that the country’s current economic indices were far from ideal, stressed the need to embrace the imperatives of local competitiveness and productiveness, as well as ability to create and add value to the economy.
The second day of the summit then saw tech professionals and government agencies sub minds in a breakout sessions that covered ICT and innovations. Other breakout sessions covered innovations, MSMEs, Services, Manufacturing, Agro Processing and the Creative Industry. Each breakout session was tasked to answer key questions and proffer solutions which the NESG can adopt and proposed to the government as opportunities to be tapped into for driving technology as a major driver for the Nigerian economy. In the breakout sessions covered ICT and innovations, quality, cost of work, taxation and lack of growth centres were cited as key reasons technology remains at the back drum of GDP contributors.
The summit ended by offering strategies the government an employ. The summit suggested that government should create tech hubs in various states and that the hubs should have all necessary infrastructures to operate. The summary document was presented to the president who was represented by Senator Udo Udoma, Minister for Budget and National Planning
