Shareholders task Jonathan on economic growth

Viewing the stability the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan will create in the domestic economy, shareholders in  the nations capital market have tasked the president to ensure that technocrats are given the pride of place in the new cabinet to be set up, so as to fast track economic growth.The shareholders said the country had experienced a lot of setbacks in terms of development and this they attributed to insecurity and lack of transparency in leadership.Bearing their minds on what the government needed to do in the next four years, National Cordinator, Progressive Shareholders of Nigeria, Mr Boniface Okezie, said the president-elect must, as matter of urgency, put machinery in place that would help reposition the economy.Okezie said: There is the need now for the president to employ the services of technocrats to work with him, especially more Nigerians in diaspora who are willing to serve the country, noting that, that is the only way to deliver the dividends of democracy as promised.He pointed out that the ongoing reforms in the various sectors of the economy should be scrutinised to ascertain their impact on the economy.This is the time to overhaul the economy, especially the economic team he inherited from the former president and select his own team among Nigerians who are willing to render services to the country with honesty.Specifically, the association boss said it was imperative to look into the reform in the banking sector and the process of recapitalisation of the rescued banks.He explained that the instability in the banking sector was having a multiplier effect on other sectors especially where the banks could no longer lend money to private sectors to grow their businesses.Also speaking, the Secretary General of the Independent Shareholders of Nigeria, Mr Adebayo Adeleke, said the problem of insecurity should be tackled in Nigeria.According to him, Nigeria can not witness the inflow of direct foreign investment if security of lives and properties is not guaranteed.Adeleke, who advised that policies capable of boosting private enterprises in the country be put in place, also lamented the increasing level of unemployment, adding that the few available jobs had been taken over by expatriates.In his own comment, a founding member of Solidarity Association of Nigeria, Chief Olatokubo Gbadegbo, said the president must first address the issue of infrastructure.He added that the political atmosphere should be made favourable and conducive for both local and foreign investors so that the country would witness robust economic growth.Gbadegbo said  that the problem of power must be tackled frontally even as the ongoing power sector reform should be addressed and looked into to enable SMEs to survive in Nigeria.
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