The president of the Association of Automobile Boatyards Transport Equipment and Allied Employers of Nigeria, Adekunle Jaiyesimi, has stressed the importance of the creation of a conducive business environment by the incoming administration.
Jaiyesimi said this during his speech at the 43rd Annual General Meeting of AABTEAN in Lagos and highlighted several socio-economic challenges facing the country.
The challenges he listed include high inflation, which exceeds 17 per cent, Boko Haram insurgency, religious and ethnic unrests, infrastructural deficits, and the continuous depreciation of the naira against the dollar.
Jaiyesimi pointed out that the International Monetary Fund projected a 3.2 per cent growth for the Nigerian economy in 2023 and reviewed its projection in the January 2023 World Economic Outlook Report, increasing it by 0.2 per cent from the three per cent projected in the October 2022 report. He attributed this upward revision to the government’s efforts at addressing security issues in the oil sector.
Furthermore, Jaiyesimi expressed concern about the nation’s unemployment rate, forecasting it to reach 40.6 per cent in 2023 compared to the 37.7 per cent recorded in 2022. He attributed this rise to the economy’s inability to absorb the annual influx of 4.5 million new jobseekers due to limited private sector investment, low industrialisation, and slower-than-required economic growth.
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