Transparent Governance Crucial for Nigeria’s Growth – World Bank Social Intervention Programme, CPPE

The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has called on the Nigerian Governments to put in place a transparent governance system, effective targeting and measurable outcomes in the implementation of the recently launched Social Intervention Programmes.

The Center said this translates the gains from macroeconomic reforms into tangible improvements in welfare, stronger productivity and a broader sharing of economic prosperity.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of the Center Dr. Muda Yusuf, in a policy brief lauded the Federal Government’s newly launched Social Intervention Programmes, supported by the World Bank, as a timely and commendable policy initiative.

The programme consists of five flagship interventions: Nigeria Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus Additional Financing (NG-CARES AF), Solutions for Internally Displaced and Host Communities Programme (SOLID), and the three Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity (HOPE) programmes-HOPE-GOV, HOPE-PHC and HOPE-EDU. Collectively, they signal an important change in the reform agenda from restoring macro-economic stability to ensuring that the benefits of reform are reflected in improved welfare, greater inclusion and shared prosperity.

“There is a broad consensus that the administration’s economic reforms have substantially strengthened macro-economic fundamentals,” he said. External reserves have strengthened and investor confidence has improved; fiscal transparency has deepened and exchange-rate stability has improved. But macroeconomic stability is necessary but not sufficient. The ultimate test of any reform programme is whether it can raise living standards by reducing inflation, boosting productivity, strengthening jobs and pushing up household incomes.

In this context, the Social Intervention Programme takes on a strategic importance. In addition to providing temporary respite to vulnerable households, it bolsters the social legitimacy of the reform process by showing that economic reforms are ultimately about improving citizens’ welfare and not merely about delivering favourable macroeconomic indicators.

Reforms are more likely to win enduring public support if their benefits are visible, inclusive and widely shared. Social protection thus contributes to social welfare as well as to the political credibility and sustainability of the reform agenda.

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The programme also underlines an important policy principle: macroeconomic stability is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Its end goal is inclusive growth, productive employment, poverty reduction and shared prosperity. It is good that the government is aware of this imperative.

But the success of the initiative will depend on implementation.” The design of the program must take into account Nigeria’s institutional realities, avoid leakages and political capture, and ensure that support reaches the intended beneficiaries efficiently, transparently and at scale. International development models need to be contextualised and not copied without adaptation to local conditions.

The importance of contextualising social interventions within a broader structural reform agenda cannot be overemphasized.

Cash transfers and associated programmes can help alleviate the social costs of adjustment in the short term, but they cannot replace reforms that address the structural causes of poverty.

He said ‘Insecurity, high food inflation, weak agricultural productivity, inadequate infrastructure and elevated production costs remain fundamental constraints to inclusive growth. Sustainable poverty reduction is dependent on increasing productive employment and enhancing the competitiveness of the economy.

Therefore social protection and structural reforms should be considered as complementary policy instruments.

Effective social interventions soften the blow of adjustment for vulnerable households, while structural reforms prepare the ground for greater productivity, stronger private investment, sustainable income growth and durable poverty reduction.