Poverty, debt, insecurity may consume Nigeria if GDP doesn’t hit $1.5trn by 2030, says economist

A renowned Economist and member of Nigeria’s Economic Management Team (EMT), Bismarck Rewane, on Monday, said the problems of multidimensional poverty, debt and insecurity may consume Nigeria if the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) does not hit $1.5trn by 2030.

That amounts to N380 trillion, nearly 28 times the size of the 2021 budget for the entire country.

Rewane, who was a keynote speaker at the 64th birthday celebration organised for Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja, stressed that such feet could only be achieved through entrepreneurship and innovations.

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He added that the country needs to grow the economy at least investment at 7 – 8% a year for 5 -10 years based on an investment-led strategy.

“Nigeria is still a laggard in many respects. Therefore, we have our work cut out for us and if we are going to achieve accelerated, sustainable and inclusive growth, we need to attract domestic and international capital with its attendant investment multiplier to achieve a GDP level of $1.5trn by 2030when our population could be 250million or more.

“We need to grow the economy to at least investment at 7 – 8% a year for 5 -10 years based on an investment-led strategy. If we fail to do this very soon, the problems of multidimensional poverty, debt and insecurity may consume us in the next decade,” he said.

Speaking further on the theme: “Building the Future of Nigeria through Enterprise, innovation, creativity, and distinction in a fragile economic setting”, the economist noted that recovery of stolen Nigeria’s assets cannot solve the country’s economic problems.

According to him, “You will hear many people say, if we recover all the stolen assets, etc, the problems of Nigeria will be solved. It is necessary to recover stolen assets but it is not sufficient to solve Nigerians management problems.”

Osinbajo, who joined the event via Zoom expressed shock that some people could organise such an event for him, saying when someone initially gave him the Zoom link to join the event being streamed online, he was really surprised.