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FG moves to improve Nigeria’s global competitiveness ranking

By BusinessNews Staff on October 8, 2013

The Federal Government has taken a major step to improve the country’s global competitiveness ranking with the appointment of Mr. Chika Mordi, as the new Chief Executive Officer, National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria.

The council, which is being chaired by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, has representatives from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, among others.

Aganga was quoted in a statement made available on Sunday that the council was key to improving the country’s global competitiveness ranking, adding that it would work closely with the private sector and the World Economic Forum to achieve the objective.

He said, “The National Competiveness Council was inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan some months ago as a private sector-led organisation. The idea of setting up the council is to help improve the competitiveness of Nigeria, which of course, will lead to increased productivity of our companies.

“The council will advocate initiatives in a number of areas, including matters that will affect the macro economy, infrastructure, capital availability, cost of doing business, skills innovation, investment and business climate and regulations. The idea is that in order for Nigeria to fully benefit from its competitive and comparative advantage, it is important that we become competitive like the rest of the world.”

The minister added that unless the country developed its huge resources, put the right skills and infrastructure in place, it would not be competitive.

Aganga noted that membership of the NCCN was drawn from both the public and private sectors, adding that the new CEO would drive the day-to-day activities of the council.

He said, “We have just announced the appointment of Mr. Chika Mordi as the new Chief Executive Officer of the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria. As part of efforts to institutionalise this drive, the NCCN board has been building a strong executive team to deepen our impact.

“We have a few government ministers like me in the council, but largely, members have been drawn from the best in the corporate world in Nigeria as well as Nigerians in the Diaspora.”

After the event, the President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Chief Kola Jamodu, told journalists that there was a need to correctly report the ongoing positive developments in the country, adding that it would go a long way in improving its competitiveness ranking globally.

[Punch]

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