Growing income disparity big problem for Nigeria, says Okonjo-Iweala: THE Federal Government yesterday said although the economy has been growing by about seven per cent in the last decade, the rising income inequality among citizenry has become worrisome. Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spoke in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN. The minister said Nigeria’s rising Gini-coefficient, which measures income distribution of a country’s residents, remains a challenge. She said the income gap has kept widening as the economy grows. Okonjo-Iweala said: “Nigeria’s economy has been growing at an incredible rate of seven per cent. Still, we are facing the problem of growing inequality and we recognise that. We have to tackle that. It is also a global problem, and we have to focus on our own, although we are still behind several emerging market countries.” The minister said the government recognised that lack of jobs among the populace was among the problems that also needed to be addressed. She added that the Federal Government was also aware that corruption and governance remained major challenges to the economy. Okonjo-Iweala said the government was tackling them. “We recognise that in Nigeria, again, corruption and governance issues are all there. There is no getting away from them. They are problems we must confront. It is not that when you mention Nigeria, the next word that comes in is corruption. I think we must be specific on the things we are doing to confront it. “I want less impunity. We want people to be punished, if they have done the wrong thing. As the Finance Minister, my interest is in getting money into the treasury. People have to see consequences.” The minister said the government was also willing to work with the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to solve both economic and social problems facing the North. The minister said Sanusi, who was last month named the Emir of Kano, has lots of experiences that would be beneficial to the people. “Absolutely, we congratulate him, and we are happy for him. It has been his dream to be the Emir of Kano, one of the most important rulers in the North. With his expertise, we do hope he will work with us so that together we will try to solve the problems in the North,” she said. Okonjo-Iweala said there is need to step up security in the north, including working with local communities to achieve peace. Original link Read More goo.gl/TLAsAo (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 23:48:16 +0000
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