Mike Arnold, Mayor of the City of Blanco, Texas, USA, has affirmed that the Nigerian economy is well on track.
Arnold, who is equally an originator of Africa Arise USA, Arise Academy IDP Camp Schools, and the #IDPjustice campaign, in an article issued to journalists said, "I have traveled to Nigeria numerous times, the Country is going places and will get there even faster when it begins to execute strategies that make her more self-reliant and less dependent on others, thereby releasing her pent-up entrepreneurial potential.”
He said, there used to be a tendency among Nigerians to think that foreign content is superior. “Now, that faulty mindset is slowly becoming extinct. Nigerians are beginning to acknowledge and accept that they can achieve greatness as well without foreign encouragement, leadership or funds. This is why the nation's music and movies are growing in distinctions all over the world.
“Not only entertainment. Nigeria’s industrialists are catching on, and the biggest of all black nations wants to move further on than song and dance to real manufacturing.
The new government's resolution to end petroleum subsidies and float the Naira is a step in the good direction towards unleashing their potential.
Arnold however admitted that Nigeria still has to work on its internal governance challenges, noting that the nation’s regulatory systems are fragile.
He said: “Nigeria was borrowing money from European and Chinese institutions to artificially inflate the value of its currency, Naira. Now, it is doing the reasonable thing by floating its currency. This may bring short-run instability, offer huge, long-term rewards and economic freedom for the country. Nigerians would be naive to think that those they took loans from will be happy with them.
“No doubt Nigeria has to work on its internal governance challenges . Its regulatory systems are weak, partly in the telecoms sector. And this sector is where you have the largest corporations in the country by market capitalization.
“Building up the regulatory institutions would lead to an infusion of fresh alien direct investment into the nation, mostly as the Nigerian Stock Exchange just registered a stunning 100,000 basis point growth in its all-share index, placing it ahead of Argentina.”
