Why the poor are not benefiting from economic growth, by SEC boss

Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Arunma 　Oteh, has said the economic growth being witnessed in the country is not reaching the poor because of the high level of unemployment in the country.

She said the infrastructure gap and unemployment challenges are keeping a larger part of the population below poverty line. “One of the challenges facing the society today is unemployment and that has made nonsense of growth in the economy. If we are able to fix infrastructure and unemployment challenges, then the growth in the economy will certainly be felt by the common man,” she said.

Despite the 7.89 growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, more than 70 per cent of the populatiuon still lives in less than a dollar per day.

Speaking during the investiture of Executive Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi 　Amaechi as Daily Independent Man of the Year 2010 at the weekend, Oteh hinted that SEC is working closely with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to achieve a single digit inflation rate to enhance the purchasing power of the naira. “With the effort of the CBN, we are working on maintaining one digit inflation rate. We are currently at 11 per cent but I can assure you, that in a very short time, Nigeria capital market will fully recover,” she said.

She said $13billion pensions assets can equally boost the market and that the managers of the funds have invested about 70 per cent of the money in the market.

She said that about $500billion is needed to fix Nigeria’s infrastructure even as providing 40 mega watts of electricity will equally fix the power problems in the country. She said that growing the capital market will help bridge the gap between where the country is today and where it is going.

Source : The Nation