Former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, has blamed Nigeria’s lack of economic philosophy for its failure to achieve high quality economic growth.
He explained that the country’s economy is managed mostly on an ad-hoc, reactive basis, even when it is clear that the wealth of nations is usually based on philosophical foundations.
Speaking on the theme titled, “The Secret of the Wealth of Nations and the Imperative of Economic Transformation” during the Centre for Financial Journalism (CFJ Nigeria)’s annual bullion lecture series in Lagos yesterday, Moghalu revealed that, “according to the World Poverty Clock, Nigeria has overtaken India as the poverty capital of the world and that according to the African Development Bank (AfDB), 152 million Nigerians, out of an overall population of about 190 million, meet the criteria of absolute poverty which means that 80 per cent of Nigerians are extremely poor.”
He further said that Nigeria needs to become a developmental country with philosophical foundations so as to build a sustainable economic future and address the need for clear economic vision, situated on a philosophical framework from which economic policy should be derived.
According to him, the pre-conditions for moving from the path of poverty to the path of prosperity hinges on the philosophical foundation for the Nigerian state, economic vision, innovation, economic complexity and institutions.
“The absence of a link between science, commercialised indigenous innovation, and economic and business activity is a fundamental obstacle between Nigeria and a quantum leap to prosperity. This gap is all the more tragic because science and technology is one area in which African countries such as Nigeria can quickly develop global competitive advantage over the Western world and even Asia,” the former CBN deputy governor said.
