105 quotes found
"Nigeria needs to be rescued urgently. What we see in our country is massive failure of our leaders."
"To reduce opportunities for corruption, you do things like structural changes in the economy."
"Anyone who wants to tackle corruption must be willing to go all the way. There are no shortcuts."
"How can the cost of education be the cost of life? It is unacceptable; it is reprehensible that we have allowed it to fester."
"When there is no consequences for criminality, it mushrooms."
"The way out for our youths is jobs, jobs, jobs."
"Education has always been known as the pathway to progress. The early child education will be integrated."
"That week that you heard me declare. I got to the point listening to ‘these people’ carrying on as if we are in an ‘okay’ place. We only have an Atiku and Buhari, who are candidates of the BUTIKU family. It was very clear that we were back again in a situation where citizens have to say, we have to choose of between a lesser evil in the two men."
"I am here to change that dirty Nigerian politics. If you are waiting for me to give you money, I will not give you, I don’t have and even if I have, I will not give anybody money. You should ask your self a question: why will a person give you money to go and serve you? How does that make sense? The only explanation is that the person is not going to serve you."
"What is the definition of structure? What these politicians call structure is a captive audience of Nigerians who come out when they need them to come out. You think the structure is that they build story building? No. It is that there is a captive audience of Nigerians who have bought into their message, who when they say to them, there is a meeting at the village square, they all come out."
"That is the point I am making, I am saying to you that the structure is the individual Nigerians, so the question you should be asking is that, do we now have people in each of these places that have bought into the message of the ACPN of today? I am here to say to you, yes we do."
"There is no way the movement can be abandoned. Have you not noticed how frequently we change leadership? It is a model for how to run institutions in Africa. This is a movement that has been on the basis of the sweat of Nigerians. We told ourselves from the very beginning that we will not take a dime from anybody."
"It’s part of the 436 reforms. It’s only one out of 436 reforms. People forget that we had to do ORASS, Operation Reach All Secondary Schools. We grilled secondary school inspectors and gave them the tools and they went to every secondary school in this land and on the basis of what they did, we were able to design what is called the Nigerian Education Management Information System."
"But education is the heartbeat of human capital development. When we say human development, we are talking of education and health. We need healthy human beings who you then give education. That is human development. The programme that we have is very interesting. Number one matter for us in the education reform programmw is to completely change the position of the teachers in our education system because research has showed us that almost 60 per cent of learning outcome is determined by the quality of the teacher in the class room."
"Prevention! A lot of institutional structures will take care of it. For example, systemic change. During the public procurement reforms, you saw how that reduced public contracting corruption. We are going to do process change to improve service delivery. The big banana is the deregulation of the economy."
"I think the endorsement of the Nigerian people is what I’m working so hard to get right now and that is why I want all Nigerian people to get ready to vote for me. All these years, what did you get in voting in almost 20 years of our democracy? Have you not been wasting your votes? A vote for Ezekwesili gets you good governance"
""So in your quest to thrive, there will be curve-balls thrown your way and you’ll have to take risks, it’s a given. But you’ve just got to trust your journey"."
"" Globally, we are at a tipping point, as we see various forms of injustice being revealed. And so now, more than ever, the world needs brave leaders like you, and me, and all other Kellogg grads around the world, to provide solutions to the existential problems being faced by humanity"."
""It so important to find your voice and help others find theirs too, during these extraordinary times"."
""I believe what’s most important is my quest to live a life that is relevant, and it can only be relevant if I have found solutions to problems that make a difference in the world I live in"."
"As a young woman who has worked hard to promote Africa in all I do, this meant a lot to me. I was sad when due to COVID 19, I was unable to join them in person. But by God’s grace, we will do so next year"
"To demonstrate that agriculture is a money-making business, and not some charity project, and a business that can deliver some astronomical returns"
"Governments must do a much better job as facilitators of enterprise, and not be a hindering force to SMEs that we all know are the engines of growth and employment in any economy"
"She’s a woman determined to break boundaries in the world and play a leading role in the transformation of Africa and its generation of young people"
"Unlike food security, the equilibrium of traditional agriculture is not a dynamic but a static one, which has remained relatively stable for a fairly long time."
"An individual, household, country or region is food secure if its food supply balances, is equivalent to, or is in equilibrium with, the demand for it."
"...can appropriately be conceptualized as a balance, or even the equilibrium, between supply and demand and can be for the individual, family or household, a country such as Nigeria, a region such as Sub-Saharan Africa or even the continent of Africa."
"A ranking of the socio-economic activities of the women studied indicated that their most important activity was the care of children, followed by house-keeping and then trading."
"Economic considerations are a major determinant of the extent to which women are involved in farming as against processing and trading."
"The quality of what people supply affects the quality of what people buy and some farmers are willing to do anything to sell their products."
"Some farmers force fruits to ripen in different ways with different chemicals; I noticed it and called the attention of NAFDAC, but nothing happened."
"My country is a country where the entrepreneurial spirit is just outstanding. You’ve got really hard-working people who are keen to make a difference in many ways, and the capital markets provide the opportunity for people to raise capital and for people to also invest in the market."
"For any country I do feel strongly that capital markets are extremely important, but more so for Nigeria than any other, because it’s almost been 50 years since independence."
"Capacity is an understanding of the risks of investing in the market, an understanding of the products available in the market, an understanding of the role of different players."
"Evidently, a world-class capital market is absolutely essential to Nigeria’s economy."
"Academic economics is the lab, or economics in the lab, while policymaking is economics in real life."
"I believe that no one benefits when anyone is in distress. So if we don’t have capitalism that works for all and addresses all the various forms of inequalities, we will neither have prosperous citizens nor have a safe and peaceful planet."
"Economics indeed matters because it enables us to measure all aspects of the well-being of society using what I consider a common standard, especially because I do believe - like it’s often said - that it is difficult to manage what you can’t measure."
"The role of Treasurer, World Bank, is one of the most prestigious finance roles globally, not only because of the volume and level of sophistication of transactions, but also because of the laudable mission of the World Bank, and the fact that it is owned by most countries of the world and operates everywhere."
"I believe that mentorship is a way to give back and contribute to preparing future generation of leaders."
"So I want to encourage us that whatever we need to do, let us do it right. We must not subject this institution to that type of incident again."
"The experience was humiliating for her and the entire management of the bank, said it was the first time that the bank would be investigated in its entire history."
"Throughout my period at the bank, I have one slight regret and that’s during the period I was acting governor. It was the time that the CBN was being investigated. It has never happened before that the activity of the CBN is under investigation."
"We went for the IMF meetings and when we met with investors, they asked us: ‘what is happening? We understand that there was some financial mismanagement in the CBN.’ It was humiliating."
"I think for me, that was a low point. The credibility for this institution was eroded. For an institution this important to be subjected to that is bad. At the end of the day, it was not just the CBN that suffered for it, but the economy as a whole did suffer."
"The exercise paralysed activities at the apex bank."
"The independence of the Central Bank is necessary. The Bank needs the freedom and space to take a long view of what is best for the economy and take decisions accordingly. Central Banks have consistently moved towards policy independence to pursue policies free from political interference. Although no central bank can be entirely independent of government’s influence, it must be free to choose the instruments it needs to achieve its mandate. The Bank must also be free from fiscal dominance; that is a situation where fiscal considerations unduly dictate monetary policy."
"In recent years, academics and policymakers have shown increasing interest in the independence of central banks with respect to the formulation of monetary policy. In the European Union, this interest was realized in the Maastricht Treaty, which gave the European Central Bank complete autonomy in conducting the monetary policy without political intrusion. Most empirical studies support central banks’ autonomy in the conduct of day-to-day monetary policy operations devoid of political pressure. This enables them to deliver better inflation outcomes, without compromising economic growth. The CBN Act of 2007 bestows independency on the Bank."
"The monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria in recent times has continued to focus on achieving price and financial stability for economic growth and development. The persistent inflation in the last one year is an issue of concern."
"The inflationary pressure could be traced largely to structural factors, which included poor electricity supply, high cost of energy arising from scarcity of petroleum products, increase in the prices of imported food, raw materials and finished goods, seasonal factors, increase in electricity tariff, insurgency and insecurity in the North East, as well as pipeline vandalism by the Niger Delta militants. However, some monetary factors included exchange rate depreciation, and budget deficits in the face of dwindling oil revenues."
"Monetary policy management has been made difficult by the uncertain global environment, arising from political and economic developments around the world. There has been an intense attack on free trade, multilateralism and globalization and the situation has not been helped by a growing preference for nationalist interest."
"Key global trends such as Brexit, the rising wave of populist and anti-globalization sentiments anchored by emerging bilateralism, divergent monetary policy stance of the advanced central banks and disorderly commodity price movements will also affect monetary policy at home. These global developments coupled with domestic factors will make monetary policy management very difficult this year. Based on these, monetary policy management in Nigeria must be diligent and collaborative to achieve its objectives of price stability in the home front."
"For Nigeria, like most developing countries, policy has often times focused on the flexible exchange rate regime and financial integration, emphasizing monetary policy independence. However, as globalization, capital flows constraints and other adverse phenomena set in, it has become imperative to seek a convergence."
"The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in 2008 recommended the imposition of some form of capital controls that at least restrain inflows of short-term funds, which the CBN has done. The CBN will also do well to stick to its statutory mandate of maintaining price stability for growth. This will go a long way in moderating inflation and stimulating growth in the long run."
"The best way to ensure the desired economic growth and low inflation is economic diversification with a broadening of the revenue base. Reducing the import dependency will also help to curb the demand for dollar; thereby reducing general inflationary pressure."
"In 2016, the Nigerian economy officially entered into recession, recording two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth rates of 0.36 per cent and 2.06 per cent in the first and second quarters, respectively. For the full year of 2016, the real GDP contracted by 1.51 per cent. Achieving price stability has remained the priority objective of most central banks. However, given the high level of poverty and unemployment in most developing countries, it has become imperative for central banks to work hard at achieving price stability with growth."
"A number of fiscal and monetary policy options have been deployed to end the recession and the efforts are yielding fruits as the recently released inflation figure shows that inflation is trending down after 15 months stretch of rising price level. The CBN is also working to increase supply of foreign exchange and boost liquidity in the interbank market to ease the scarcity of foreign exchange for the manufacture of goods and increase the level of production. On the part of the fiscal authority, efforts at broadening the revenue base and increasing the collection of taxes have been intensified and are yielding fruits."
"Nigeria’s economic recession can be traced to a number of global and domestic factors. They include slump in commodity prices, general slowdown in economic activity in developing countries, over dependency on oil, lack of diversification of the revenue base, consumption-led growth, militancy in the Niger-Delta region, insurgency in the North East and unutilized excess liquidity in the banking system."
"Taking these factors together, the effect on the Nigerian economy has been the significant decline in the country’s foreign reserves, depreciation of the Naira and substantial increase in consumer prices. To reverse the trend and put the economy back on a path to economic recovery, significant effort is needed on the part of the Federal Government, especially harmonization of its fiscal and monetary policies to boost aggregate demand and investor confidence."
"It is also expected that the fiscal authorities would provide direction and leadership while the monetary authorities would facilitate an enabling business environment conducive for growth. Nonetheless, the overriding mandate of the Bank continues to be price stability across the major price rates: inflation; loan interest; and foreign exchange. Stability in prices is essential for investment and consumption. Monetary policy can help through influencing short-term interest rate, but monetary policy alone is not enough to pull the country out of recession. Fiscal policy must come in and do its part to fully pull the economy out of recession."
"The challenges are many. Oil price volatility and the unstable global environment are major challenges for Central Banking in Nigeria as they are causing growth challenges and other spill-over effects for the local economy. Central Banking in Nigeria is faced with other enormous challenges such as the size of Nigeria’s informal sector. Globally, developing/emerging economies are characterized by a big informal sector which causes a lot of limitations to Monetary Policy implantation and coverage because a majority of the participants in the sector are not using formal financial services and so cannot be captured formally."
"Poor financial literacy is another. It is only when the vast majority of the Nigerian population is financially literate that they can participate in the formal financial system; the reverse is the case."
"Financial illiteracy results in poor financial inclusion. Non-financial inclusion becomes a threat to the survival of the Nigerian financial sector as most adults and young Nigerians are financially excluded from the formal financial sector. A high percentage of adult Nigerians don’t have bank accounts, and this in the long run becomes a big headache for central banking."
"Nigeria needs to deepen its financial sector as a whole. Deepening the financial sector entails improving financial structures to ensure efficient delivery of financial services to the private sector."
"Then, there is the issue of monetary and fiscal policy coordination. Non- harmonization of monetary and fiscal policies is an issue of serious concern in the country because they complement each other. Monetary policy has a limit and whenever it reaches that limit, the only way out is for the fiscal authorities to intervene in the economy. So, in the absence of such coordination/harmonization between the two, a serious economic problem may arise."
"The threat to CBN autonomy is also disturbing. Global best practice prescribes central banks’ independence to enhance policy coherence and sturdiness born out of freedom of vision and implementation space."
"The future of the Nigerian economy is very bright. The Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (ERRP) by the Federal Government with other complementary policies are set to propel the Nigerian economy out of the recession and move the economy forward. The broad government strategy of infrastructure development, structural reforms and investment in social safety nets are policies that will position the economy to a more inclusive and diversified growth."
"by N Okonjo-Iweala · 2014 · Cited by 2 — She said, "People knew about the economics, maybe the geography—but they didn't know how people lived""
"But in the legislature, there's still not quite the acceptance of letting women break through the glass ceiling. It's clearly a man's world."
"When it comes to election time, everybody wants all sorts of things"
"Our politicians need to realize that you do not politicize the budget. In a developing country, that's lethal."
"Everything has become politicized, even corruption. People throw out corruption charges, numbers of missing income, that are untrue."
"4 Mar 2021 — has only just begun her run. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala ... said “in every challenge, there is an opportunity”. For Africa, she ."
"You can't just have a World Bank and IMF, which are supposed to help in development, and have the richest countries control them."
"Leadership is not about the next election, it's about the next generation."
"You have to have a passion for development in Africa and the Caribbean."
"Without good data, you're flying blind."
"Women need to be part of the solution, not just a part of the discussion."
"Corruption is not just a problem of Nigeria; it is a global problem."
"We have to make sure that the benefits of globalization are shared more widely."
"When women are empowered, they improve not only their own lives, but also the lives of their families and communities."
"Development is not about helping poor people, it is about creating wealth, jobs, and opportunity."
"In every crisis lies an opportunity."
"Trade is a strong driver of global growth."
"Current trade issues are not purely the fault of trade policy."
"Digital trade is going to be the future of trade."
"Africa’s share of world trade has stagnated by 3 per cent because they are still exporting the same things."
"Africa must trade more with itself."
"Africa has potential not only for critical minerals but also for clean energy."
"The US should also think because trade is about interdependence, and if countries decide to trade by themselves, that won't work."
"There is no country that can exist by itself."
"Sometimes trade is unfairly blamed for things that are due to technology."
"Gender parity is a statistical measure that compares women and men through their income, education, and work hours among other points. It is also an important tool for policymakers striving towards gender equality."
"Celebrate women around the world, promote gender quality as well as eliminate gender stereotype."
"The present and future of Abia depend on the quality of education we provide for our children. We will intentionally prepare our citizens to be skilled participants in the global village, where science, technology, and mathematics are used as productive tools for work and play."
"Things may not go exactly as we wish but even then, we have a responsibility to step out with hope, doing our best each day to pursue the outcomes we seek for ourselves and our loved ones. Hope must override despair and nothing should distract us from giving our all to achieve the goals that we have carefully laid out in the weeks and days leading to this remarkable day. I do not possess the power to predict the future but I know one thing for sure: victory ultimately goes to the one who never gave up."
"We strive valiantly but again and again, we come short, not because we so desire but because it is the nature of human endeavours. Our modest success in the last one year has come from waking up with new enthusiasm each morning, believing that we shall achieve better outcomes in the new day, having learnt from the mistakes of yesterday."
"Quality education plays a fundamental role in addressing insecurity by tackling its root causes such as poverty, unemployment, and ignorance. It empowers individuals with the knowledge, skills, and values needed to promote critical thinking, tolerance, and responsible citizenship. Educated communities are better equipped to resist manipulation, extremism, and violence. Furthermore, quality education fosters social inclusion, expands economic opportunities, and strengthens institutions-all of which are essential to building long-term peace and security."
"Democracy requires patience, commitment & Endurance .The most admired democratic country in the world today did not achieve that in a day .It took years of learning & persistence for them to reach where they are today."
"I don’t know what linkages and connections one can establish, but one thing was clear. Not only was I the only child, my mother was the only child."
"I believe that the country must draw necessary lessons from its experience and deliberately build itself into a strong nation exploiting fully its diverse talents and culture."
"If you are conscious that you are not qualified, maybe you will work hard enough to justify our confidence."
"“Because that’s the way""
"“First of all, you are not yet addressing the political problem of your country. You have been put into power by your neighboring countries under a false assumption, and sooner or later they are going to turn against you because you would not be able to deliver what they want from you."
"I came to ECA to foster regional cooperation and integration, not to be an undertaker of the corpse of defunct ones."