Spread the love
Government can make the various sectors more productive if it demonstrates genuine commitment and holistic restructuring of the relevant MDAs for better service delivery, with minimal administrative and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
This was made known by the President, Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), Dr. Idris Omede at the 33rd Annual General Assembly of the body.
Omede, a former commissioner in Kogi State, said government at various levels should practically demonstrate interest and actively pay attention to both recurrent and capital investment in them, amongst others. He stated that the nation and its leaders need the synergy and mutual relationship between APBN and government to actualize government and professional thoughts and proposal in various areas, such as power, infrastructure, healthcare, housing, education, telecommunications/ICT and other areas of human capital.
“Generally, the various sectors of the economy are passing through challenging times. Nigeria’s GDP and other economic indicators particularly in Agriculture and Telecommunications have shown some positive trends, technically but yet to practically demonstrate the 0.55% rise in GDP in the second quarter of 2017.
“In this regard, we look forward to a sustained raise and resultant positive impact on the economy, to address the nation’s many challenges. These challenges include but not limited to poverty, low or stagnant industrial production, unemployment, high inflation, poor infrastructure and utilities such as bad roads, poor electricity supply, telecommunication and security challenges, etc.
“Many states of the federation are in financial crisis, owing to backlogs of unpaid salaries with resultant collapse of economic activities, and associated multiplier effects. Most Nigerians are living through a very tough economic environment. The various agitations and protestation across the country require careful and ingenious handling for peace, tranquility and security to thrive for a positive growth.
“To address these challenges, there should be a sincere and committed interface between professional bodies, APBN, Government, Labor organizations, organized private sector and other critical stakeholders. This will no doubt impact on our nation’s developmental and infrastructural challenges positively.
“As professionals, we are optimistic that, with genuine recourse to electricity generation, production and distribution, and other visibly viable areas, the GDP will rise to address these challenges and improve the economic outlook of our country. The non-implementation of existing extant laws and Acts, that are in place to make the governance system more effective, efficient and functional is worrisome and need to be addressed with all sincerity.
“The non-recourse to APBN and its array of professional member bodies by the government on issues of our various professions and professionalism, is not in the best interest of our Nation. We salute the Federal Government, for her August 2017 Executive order on Foreign Professional practicing in Nigeria without certification by relevant regulatory Body. Government should enlist and support relevant MDAs and professional bodies to enforce this laudable order. The regulatory bodies should live up to the expectation of government and people.
“APBN would want to partner with relevant government, MDAs to will set up task teams of our member bodies across the states of the Federation including FCT Abuja to track and monitor projects and upload details of the professional engaged in such projects and serve as an operative indicator or tool for the order. This excellent policy if genuinely implemented, will build capacity of the professional, ensure youth employment in the service sector of the economy, reduce cost of bridging the infrastructure gap and therefore, further stimulate the economy.
“The government three to five years tax rebate for pioneer Industries until the Industries get matured, is a great incentive. It is our expectation that there will be equitable and fair patronage of the Industries and clear records by concerned bodies,” he said.
Omede assured delegates that APBN shall continue to advocate and exert more influence in public and private sector programs and projects.
Spread the love
