KICC President Matthew Ashimolowo has urged the Federal Government to implement short,medium, and long-term strategies to tackle Nigeria’s chronic poverty.
He recommends adopting ‘Keynesian economics’ for production boost and expressed concern about the harassment of Nigerian business owners by revenue agencies.
Matthew Ashimolowo advocates supporting small and medium enterprises instead of empowering a select few rich individuals incapable of employing over 100,000 people.
During a recent interview, he emphasized the need for government encouragement of industries and dismissed palliatives as a short-term solution, suggesting a focus on sustainable measures to address economic challenges in the country.
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Matthew Ashimolowo Speaking During An Interview
Matthew Ashimolowo said, “In the short-term, government should apply ‘Keynesian economics’, which argues that government should encourage industries to overproduce and then buy the excess, that way, there will be production when the government buys off the excesses and give to the people with low income.
“In the medium term, the government should take away the power of over-empowering a few very rich men that we keep celebrating as multi-billionaires meanwhile they cannot employ more than 100,000 people.
The government should rather encourage small and medium enterprises, Nigerians are very entrepreneurial by nature, and no house does not have a shop in front of it, the government calls them a setback but it is not a setback, those small shops should be empowered.
“In the long term, the government must encourage industries to come up. They say it is easy to do business in Nigeria, but it is a lie, I have businesses in Nigeria, and it is not easy to do business if you are doing business in Nigeria, you are harassed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the local inland revenue service.
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“Palliative is not the answer, I think palliative is short term, we don’t call our palliative. The dictionary definition of palliative is something you give a man who is sick as a reprieve. Ours is not that, ours is to bless, we are here to touch people and show them compassion, we are not the government.”
