By Peter Osalor THE Nigerian economy is overwhelmingly dependent on oil, while accounts for 81 percent of government revenue and more than 97 percent of export earnings. Myopic policies pursued by successive military regimes in the final decades of the last century devastated the traditional agrarian economy and crippled growth in the non-oil sectors. Consequently, Nigeria’s growing oil wealth corresponded with a simultaneous decline of human development indicators and widening urban- rural divides. Massive imbalances in the economy spawned a thriving informal sector that continues to sustain most of Nigeria’s 188 million people( UN estimates October 19, 2016) . The fundamental problem with the Nigerian economy is its failure to diversify. Instead of investing oil revenues in multi-sector economic growth or poverty alleviation, past governments frittered away national profits through unsustainable import reliance, poorly sustained policies, and corruption. The resulting fragility ha...
Comments
Post a Comment