SAN FRANCISCO, July 08, (THEWILL) – Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday, declared that the management of the economy is a government responsibility as he explained why the Economic Management Team by the Presidency has no private sector representation.
In an interview with journalists in Abuja, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Osinbajo, Laolu Akande, revealed that the government did not believe in having private sector representation in the economic team, which will make them part of decisions that will directly benefit from.
“We have to understand that the attitude of this Presidency is to consider the management of the economy as a government responsibility,” he said.
“It is not something that this government believes should be done by bringing in some of the private interests into the economic team to take a decision that they will be directly involved with.
“So our stand is that the management of the economy is a government responsibility but the private sector is not completely left out as other stakeholders are regularly engaged by the government.
“For instance, we have started meeting on constant basis with Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). There have been meetings with arms of the economic sector of the country. There have been meetings with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and some other economic interests with companies, making presentations.
“But generally, this thing is a government team and the team has been able to set out before the budget trying to figure out what the budget ought to focus on. After the budget was presented and eventually signed, there was also the publication of the strategic implementation plan which was produced in a reader friendly format.
“All of these are the outcomes of what Economic Management Team does and it is also in the team that you have the heap of the whole physical and monetary policy and don’t forget that the monetary policy is always the duty and responsibility of the Central Bank which is an economic arm of government.”
