No one looks forward to a recession as it is characterized by high unemployment for workers, reduction in profits for businesses and revenue for government, and rise in social vices. In the last one year Nigeria has been battling its first recession since 1987 which has virtually brought the country to its knees as a result of crash in crude oil prices and inconsistent monetary and fiscal policies.

This was a disaster waiting to happen as the country has been a mono product economy depending on the exports of its hydro carbons for most of its foreign exchange and government revenues. Successive governments have not lived up to the promise of diversifying the economy and the current government regrettably may quietly be waiting for oil prices to rise again too as despite being in power for over 18 months has no serious action plan on diversifying the economy.

This recession presents us all an opportunity to reflect on why our economy has gone down and collectively take tough decisions that will reset the economy towards sustainable growth and development. The elimination of subsidies on imported petroleum products is one of those decisions which were necessary as it creates distortions and government should be bold enough to tackle other subsidies including forex subsidies.

To effectively tackle this recession we have to move from being a consumption led economy to a production led one, tackle corruption and impunity which frustrates business and investments, and fix our broken infrastructure.

Become a Producing economy: Nigeria hardly produces anything and has a highly sophisticated population who prefer foreign made products to the few locally made ones that exists. Almost anything is imported including toothpicks, pencils and water. A flourishing economy thrives on production of goods and services, as this creates jobs, and also generates revenue for economy. We must not only produce but collectively encourage everyone to buy and use made in Nigeria products and services.

The country should first focus on areas of comparative advantage like petroleum and agriculture for quick wins. The solid minerals sector is another area that should be actively explored and developed as there exists in abundance deposits of solid minerals everywhere in the country. Incentives and tax breaks would incentivise private sector led investments into these sectors and state governments should also be encouraged to explore solid mineral deposits in their respective states.

Agriculture has the biggest potential to drive the economy as the country has 84 Million hectares of fertile land and a population of almost 200 Million people. This can be driven by state policy mandating both federal and state governments to allocate at least 15% of their annual budgets to agriculture as this will create jobs, ensure food security and regenerate revenue for government.

This will also result in the coming on board of industries and factories with the primary objective of processing these agricultural harvests into semi-finished and finished products, thereby furtheradding value to the economy.

Fix Infrastructural deficit: The absence of basic infrastructure makes the country a difficult place to do business. Businesses have to generate their power and build their infrastructure to enable them operate which increases their costs of doing business. Nigeria currently has an infrastructural deficit of about USD$ 120 Billion and this has a huge impact on the economy.

Fixing our decayed Infrastructure will boost the economy and create jobs. Investments in dams will boost irrigation for all year farming and rails will aid movement of produce from farms to markets.

Government should however resist the temptation of politicizing these investments as projects should be sited where value for money and impact on the economy will be maximized.

Rein in Corruption: One of the Nigeria’s biggest challenges is how to rein in corruption as it cuts across every strata of the society. From the private sector to public sector, corruption is monster that must be tamed for the country to make progress.

Taming corruption would ensure that we receive good value from government for projects and funds appropriated. This will bring sanity into the polity and encourage investments since it will no more be business as usual.

Buhari should also reshuffle his cabinet. A lot of those ministers do not know their left from right, and so should be fired for more competent persons to take charge of those ministries.