The Chairman of the Western zone of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Mikahil Ogundiran, has called on the Federal Government to free the nation’s economy from dependence on oil by focusing on other sectors for foreign earnings.
According to him, this will sustain the economy and allay the fear of falling back into a recession.
The Federal Government had announced that the economy exited recession in the second quarter.
Ogundiran, who is the immediate past chairman of Ogbomoso (Oyo) District Society of ICAN, spoke at the investiture of the new Chairman of the district, Mr. Ismail Adigun, in Oyo town.
He said, “The economic team of the Federal Government could not be far from the truth by saying that we are technically out of recession. It is not what can be declared without studying the indices that we use to determine what the economy is saying. When you see an upward trend in the indices by which an economy is measured, then we can say that we are out of recession.
“The government had no option but to announce that we were in the state of economic recession. It was a way of asking Nigerians to reduce their expectation from the present government because of the corruption that was perpetrated under the last government.”
He added, “For Nigerians to start feeling the effect of coming out of recession, corruption must be reduced. Sooner or later, our oil will become irrelevant because of the new technological breakthrough.
“We now have cars running without fuel and so on. For us to develop as a nation and to feel the effect of economic growth, Nigeria must quickly diversify its economy and target foreign earnings from other sectors rather than oil.”
Ogundiran added that Nigeria must also manage the present gains of its economy to avoid a repeat of what it experienced in the past, urging government at all levels to show more commitment to the welfare of the populace.
“We need to study the situation well so that we do not go back into recession. Recession is not strange. It is part of the cycle of an economy. Once in a while, it will appear and disappear. But what we experienced was caused by the recklessness in the management of our economic resources over the last few years.