Don advocates Economic Policy Institute

                    By Bayo Ogunmupe

    A Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and development Studies, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Professor Philip Alege has advocated the establishment of an Economic Policy Institute as a framework that will lead to the appropriate policy advice in response to societal problems. According to him, the world is changing rapidly, factors and means of production are not static and national economies are perturbed by internal and external shocks that needed to be addressed.

    Alege gave this recommendation amongst others while delivering the 22nd Inaugural Lecture of the University held on November 29, 2019. In his lecture titled: 'Rethinking the Methodological Approach to Contemporary Macroeconomic Analysis in Nigeria,' Professor Alege showed the need to prepare and equip future economists appropriately. He said in Nigeria's dynamic setting where everything was susceptible to changes and uncertainties, a policy formulating research institute was inevitable. He contended that such initiative should be accompanied by evidence based tools that can address economic policy issues of the future. "It is time to move away from old and obsolete tools of analysis in order not to be disrupted," he asserted.

    Among other recommendations, Alege called for a review of the curriculum of macroeconomics; proposing to Covenant University as the best university in West Africa, to lead the revolution and that the time has come to jettison static, piecemeal and single equation approaches to policy making in Nigeria. Earlier in his opening remarks, the Vice Chancellor of Covenant University, Professor AAA Atayero, described the inaugural lecture as a platform for distinguished academics to avail policy makers and the general public with insights on what turns to make in the nation's development drive in order to achieve economic growth and development. With statistics from the World Bank, Atayero noted that since 2015, Nigeria's economic growth had been snail paced, with 1.9 percent growth achieved in 2018; stabilizing at 2 percent by the first half of 2019. He added that private consumption stagnated because of two digit inflation rate (11percent) which prevailed in the first half of 2019.

    Professor Atayero said that the economic growth achieved this year was mostly driven by the service sector. "From the World Bank perspective, Nigeria's economic growth is constrained by a weak macroeconomic framework with high persistent inflation, multiple exchange windows and foreign exchange restrictions, distortionary activities by the Central Bank, and the lack of revenue driven fiscal consolidation results," the Vice Chancellor stated.