By Lilian Chukwu
Lagos – A Quantity Surveyor, Mr Jide Oke, on Monday urged the Federal Government to focus more on development of capital projects as a way of stimulating the economy.
Oke, a former Chairman of the Nigeria Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
He said it was through capital project developments that money could start coming into the country, which will revive the economy from the effects of recession.
According to him, the government needs to spend the economy out of recession by continually investing in it, particularly in capital projects.
“There is undoubtedly lull in the economy in 2017 due to the economic recession.
“There is no new policy on housing, while existing ones are not implemented. And as a result, there are no physical developments or capital projects.
“This to a great extent affected the building construction industry because there is no remarkable achievement recorded in the sector within the year.
“Let government inject funds into the economy through capital projects as a way of stimulating it back to life,” he said.
Oke, however, suggested that the money recouped from corruption should be re-spent into the economy to stimulate economic activities.
He said the government must stabilise the exchange market to ensure a sustainable exchange rate.
“Sustainable exchange rates will stimulate investment and economic activities.
“It will also aid the diversification of the economy in terms of boosting the competitiveness of our local products,” he said.
Oke urged the government to ensure that the recently launched `Ease of business in Nigeria’ would be properly worked on and implemented, saying that could go a long way to revamp the economy.
