BY PROVIDENCE OBUH

The Nigerian economy will change if there can be an effective and efficient implementation of its planned policies, says the World Bank.

World Bank Country Director, Nigeria, Mr Onno Ruhl made the statement during the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce Breakfast meeting in Lagos, saying that implementation of policies will change Nigeria and not plans.

Ruhl said: “The issue is about implementation, the issue is about how you translate your interaction plans on ground to make your action plans correspond to planning, that is the issue of Nigeria.”

Responding to a question on why the World Bank has been discussing action plans to grow the Nigerian economy without result, he responded, “the World Bank has been discussing for decades and nothing has changed because we have not been talking about implementation, we have been talking about plans and visions and solutions.”

Quoting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, he noted that all hands must be on deck to see something, say something and do something.

“What Nigeria needs in the next four years is to record about nine or ten per cent growth rate from the seven per cent recorded before the election,” he said.

The EFCC boss in her presentation titled: EFCC’s critical role in growing the Nigerian Economy, recommended that the Federal Government should create a small think-tank committee of experts to monitor the implementation and advise government on policies and projects.

“This think-tank should have the power to recommend the prosecution of any official who is found wanting.

This should include civil servants many of whom see their positions as unimpeachable relying on archaic public service rules that are not in tune with 21st Century philosophies” she said.

Waziri lamented over contracts awarded without execution in the country. “The present award of huge contracts without a corresponding positive impact on the economy does not suggest effective and efficient implementation.”

Speaking on corruption, she said the commission has recovered $1.1 billion since its inception in 2003, as well as $6.5 billion recovered in the last two years, pointing out that a substantial portion of these recoveries are Government funds that have been siphoned and criminal proceeds from bank frauds.

According to her, “these recoveries include some part of the Abacha loot as well as recoveries arising from the bank sanitisation exercise which the commission embarked on with the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

Specifically, she explained that the recovered funds especially the Government funds are remitted to the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation of Nigeria or the applicable State Government as required by public service rules.

“The role of the EFCC in the development and sustainability of Nigeria is therefore not only critical but central,” she said.