By NKIRUKA NNOROM

The Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, has said assured of the Federal Government’s commitment towards achieving a double digit GDP growth rate as a catalyst to meeting the vision 2020 target.

He gave the assurance while presenting a paper, ‘Single Digit Interest Rate: A Tool to Foster Investment in an Inflationary Macro-economic Setting’, at the 27th Annual General Meeting of Manufacturing Association of Nigeria, Ogun State branch.

Aganga, who was represented by Dr. Jaiye Oba, a director in the ministry, said the growth will be tailored towards evolving private sector driven economy with the manufacturing sector as the main engine of the growth.

“To this effect, government has made concerted efforts at addressing some of the critical challenges which have been the bane of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria in the last two decades and I can assure you that significant progress has been achieved in the area of infrastructure and power supply.

“We are however conscious of the need to do more in these areas in order to guarantee national sufficiency. We are equally working seriously to stimulate expansion of existing industries in the country by putting in place specific incentives for the manufacturing sectors with a view to increase output and create more employment opportunities for Nigerians,” he said.

Lamenting the negative effect high interest rate could pose to achieving the set target, Aganga said, “This untoward development which has persisted in the past three decades runs contrary to our national development agenda of becoming one of the leading world economies by 2020.”

He observed that achieving single digit interest rate would catalyse increased investment in the economy and enhance the country’s global competitiveness, which, he said would herald rapid industrialisation as is the case with other emerging economies.

He said that government, as well as the monetary authorities, should be challenged to develop new ways of fighting inflation other than the deployment of interest rate as a means of mopping up excess liquidity in the economy.

“Government is in constant consultations with relevant stakeholders over these issues and efforts are being made to find lasting solution to the dilemma and evolve meaningful exchange rate regime that will tally with the desire of government to e-invigorate the manufacturing sector and this nation on its path to prosperity,” Aganga assured.

The chairman, MAN Ogun State chapter, Dr. Dapo Ogutuga, said among the major factors that have stunted the growth of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria was the dearth of long-term funding for manufacturing industries.

He noted that despite government’s efforts at addressing the malaise, it has remained a daunting challenge to industrial growth of the nation, even as he said that single digit interest rate is a sine-quo-non for industrial development.