The Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPSN) says it has put together an advocacy document to help the incoming government achieve better governance, restating readiness to work with the government to ensure economic growth.
The organisation made this known at a High-Level Meeting of the OPSN with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) facilitated by the Centre for International Private Enterprise, Nigeria on Tuesday in Lagos.
The OPSN comprises the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN); Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA).
Others are Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA); Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industries, and Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.
In his remarks, the President of NECA, Mr Taiwo Adeniyi, said that OPSN would work with the political parties’ campaign Director-Generals to get the document across to the candidates of the parties.
“What we have decided to do, after the election, this will form part of the documents for engagement; so, we are ready, prepared and we are going to use it after the election.
“In every meeting that we have, whatever you see us present, is the voice of a larger percentage of us.
“It is the voice of every member of the organised private sector that we have put together as an advocacy document to help the incoming government to be able to settle in and begin to do things properly.
‘’So, we are forming a ‘pressure group’ and we are going to make sure that indeed, we apply that pressure when the time comes to do that,’’ Adeniyi
said.
While presenting the document, “Policy Priorities for Political Parties in Nigeria’’, he identified some of the challenges bedeviling the growth of the economy.
According to him, the challenges include lack of philosophical direction; low level of investment in human capital development; opulent policies designs with limited implementation, among others.
‘’It is imperative that we identify and understand our economic philosophy; funding is not an issue, but designing the right policy with proper implementation and monitoring for desired expectation.
‘’We must ensure synergy in the policy environment: we find that many times, the monetary and fiscal policies are always at logger heads.
‘’So, we expect that one of the things that must be done immediately is to ensure synergy in the policy environment,” he said.
The NECA president urged the incoming government to engage the OPSN as it settled down to draw policies and programmes that would drive the economy.
He called for an enabling environment for production to happen and development to occur for the private sector to be adequately enabled to play its part in engendering economic growth.
‘’The OPSN has not only identified issues and challenges confronting the nation, we have also provided solutions in many instances.
‘’Also, we are willing and ready to work with the government to ensure the growth of our economy.
‘’Thus, we call on government at all levels and arms to engage the OPSN as a body and not individual businesses, ‘’ he said.
