The Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has called on regulatory agencies in the Nigeria financial system to come up with growth indices that would reflect the true nature of the countrys economic progress.Amaechi noted that developed nations measured their economic growth by tangible successes recorded by their citizens. He frowned on the fact that the Nigerian government often based its deductions on happenings in the oil and gas sector of the economy.The Rivers governor, who spoke at the Forbes Man of the Year award held in Lagos last week, said, In the more developed economies, the health of the economy is measured in terms of indices that make sense to ordinary citizens. These include new car registration, new home purchases, retail trade volumes and volume and direction of signals at the stock exchange.But in our instance, we praise ourselves that our economy is growing at seven per cent, based mostly on the activities in the oil and gas sector. Economies that grow at the expense of real needs of the people are prone to upheavals and turbulence. In my view, the progress of a society and the health of its economy are best measured in terms of the quality of lives of the people.Last month, Nigerias High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida, had been quoted as saying that the countrys economy would grow by more than seven per cent in 2012.He said this in London while briefing the Business Council for Africa on Doing Business in Nigeria.Amaechi said Nigerias economy needed to increase its flow of direct foreign investment, adding that in pursuit of this, the federal and state governments had invested in various investment instruments, both at home and around the world.But let us make no mistake about this. The world will only come to our country with investments if they perceive that we are serious with a number of issues, he said.We need to address and tackle corruption; we need to address avoidable security lapses; we need to streamline the legal and regulatory environment to protect investments; and above all, we need to march our drive for foreign investments with our encouragement of domestic investments, he added.He said it did not make sense for Nigeria to go begging foreigners to come and invest in the country, when potential local investors next door were barricaded by psychological and legal limitations.Meanwhile, the governor said his administration had made the welfare of Rivers people the cornerstone of its development agenda and governance philosophy.We are doing things that touch the peoples lives directly by building the best schools so that children of the rich and the poor can meet and mix on a common platform of the best of knowledge, he said.
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