Nigeria urged to embrace best economic policies

Nigeria must embrace the best economic policies urgently to address the recession, a Lagos-based financial expert, Bismarck Rewane, said Friday.

Speaking in Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub, Rewane, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Ltd., said the West Africa nation would get out of recession by 2018 with the right economic policies.

"It will take a minimum of 18 months for Nigeria to get out of recession, and signs of recovery will start showing in 2017 with the best policies," he added.

According to him, there is sense of urgency, honesty and desperation in addressing the country's economic challenges.

"If we fail this time as a country, everybody fails," the financial expert said, noting that the government must raise funds from multinational agencies, reduce interest rate and debt servicing to achieve the desired growth.

Rewane called for an expansion in credit supply and reduction of the Cash Reverse Requirement for banks to lend to the real sector.

The financial expert insisted that redundant assets could be concessioned to bring the country out of recession.

Rewane said that public schools and hospitals needed to be more efficient and effective to reduce pressure on foreign exchange.

The expert attributed the nation's economic challenges to "policy dis-alignment," external imbalances and internal imbalances that led to low productivity. Endit