Deregulation, cost of governance top discourse as NES#18 begins in Abuja

The 18th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#18) themed, ‘Deregulation, Cost of Governance and Nigeria’s Economic Prospects’ will commence today in Abuja.
The summit which is billed to bring over 500 people together, including government officials, business leaders, civil society groups, the youth, and friends of Nigeria, to deliberate on critical issues of national economic development, will also play host to President Goodluck Jonathan, who is expected to shed light on his policies and plans on deregulation, as well as the cost of governance.
President Jonathan will also discuss the nation’s economic prospects.
The President’s key ministers, including the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Planning Minister, Shamsuddeen Usman and the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido, Sanusi Lamido will make presentations on the economy, highlighting progress made so far, failures, as well as government’s policies going forward.
The Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) which has held for the past 17 years, is the largest national gathering for discussions on economic issues and is jointly organised by the Federal Government, represented by the Ministry of National Planning, and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), representing the private sector.
The organisers of this 18th NES say the event is conceptualised and structured to elicit deeper dialogue between the public and private sectors on the need to build on Nigeria’s successful deregulation of the telecoms, banking, insurance and aviation sectors, by adopting and supporting full deregulation of the remaining critical economic sectors of agriculture, power, transportation, healthcare, as well as oil and gas, which collectively account for 56 percent of Nigeria’s GDP.
The theme of NES# 18, for them, is consistent with their commitment to continually focus on contemporary issues of public policy which constrain improvements in Nigeria’s public governance system, undermine economic development and the welfare and well-being of our people.
The Planning Minister, Shamsuddeen Usman, told BusinessDay that this year’s summit theme was chosen to explain to Nigerians, the broader concept and implications of deregulation, discuss government principles on cost of governance, as well as x-ray the nation’s economic outlook.
He described the summit as a unique and good forum for governments and the private sector to gather and interact with all other concerned stakeholders.

Source: BusinessDay