Three Presidential Candidates on Saturday clashed on the economy in the
televised debate held at the Trans-corp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that they include Oby
Ezekwesili of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Fela Durotoye
of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) and Kingsley Moghalu of the Young
Progressives Party (YPP).
Asked how he intended to fix the economy, Moghalu said the country currently lacked an economic philosophy.
He stated that the country must first decide whether it is practicing a capitalist or socialist ideology.
“So, my approach to the Nigerian economy is first to focus on reforming
the educational system; ensure that our young people have the skills
that can make them competitive in the 21st century and the skills that
can give them jobs or help them to set up their own jobs.
“Then we will give them access to finance which my government will do
through the creation of N1 trillion venture capital fund which will give
equity capital, not loans that will have to be repaid.
“This is because loans carry interests in Nigeria that is too high or we may not have the collateral to be able to access them.
“So, we will invest in new businesses that will create millions of jobs within the first four years.
“Therefore, the approach that we will have is skill, capital and
literacy, that is what will fix the Nigerian economy and take it into
industrialisation,’’ Moghalu said.
On his plan for economic diversification especially through building the
non-oil sector, Durotoye identified agriculture, housing and
infrastructure as the most important sectors that should be focused on.
He said his government would ensure that it fix the power sector, roads
and provide housing for Nigerians, adding that his plan is to provide 30
million jobs.
He said the commodity sector needed to be strengthened so that farmers could have their produce promptly cleared.
On her part, Ezekwesili said her plan is to lift at least 80 million
Nigerians out of poverty through improvement in the productivity of
majority of Nigerians who “earn less than N700 a day’’.
To do this, she said her government would evolve policies and programmes
targeting people engaged in the services sector which constitutes about
60 per cent of the country’s GDP
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