Professor of Management at Middle Tennessee State University, Prof. Sesan Kim Sokoya, has offered ideas on how the Nigerian economy can be boosted with adequate economic clusters.
Prof. Sokoya spoke in Lagos last Thursday, at the special public lecture organised by Pinnacle Leadership and Entrepreneurial Academy Nigeria Limited, in celebration of the firm’s chairman, Mr. Gbola Sokoya, on the occasion of the latter’s 60th birthday. The theme of the lecture was ‘Sustainable national development in a globalised economy: Modern prescriptions’.
The Associate Dean for Graduate and Executive Education at MTSU said economic clusters in Nigeria should be made effective. “Economic clusters in Nigeria should have their own identities. They should be built with the presence of enabling factors such as internet access and adequate power supply,” he said.
He also highlighted the lack of coordinated policies to grow economic clusters as a challenge to the feasibility of these institutions. He said: “It has been discovered that all the free trade zones in Nigeria such as the Calabar Free Trade Zone, Kano Free Trade Zone and the Lekki Free Trade Zone – all suffer from power outages, language differences and serious corruption. How can the economy grow with these issues?”
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There was also a panel discussion with discussants comprising the CEO of Benin Electricity Distribution Plc, Mrs. Funke Osibodu; Executive Secretary, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption and chairman-designate, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, Prof. Bolaji Owasonye; CEO of Asset and Resource Management Holding Company, Mrs. Jumoke Ogundare and CEO of SwiftThink Limited, Mr. Ayoola Jolayemi.