Some financial experts on Wednesday said that the high Gross Domestic Product rate being recorded by Nigeria had not impacted positively on the living conditions of Nigerians.

The experts told the News Agency of Nigeria  in Lagos that the statistics only reflected productivity, but not real development.

According to them, the economy is growing in terms of  production of goods and services, but not in terms of good roads, quality education and affordable health care system.

NAN recalled that Nigeria Bureau of Statistics had reported that Nigeria’s GDP growth rate in the second quarter of the year was 6.28 per cent.

A former Director at the Central Bank of Nigeria,Mr. Titus Okunrounmu, said that development in the oil sector was mainly instrumental to the growth of the GDP.

Okunronmu said that other sectors were not contributing much to the growth of the GDP.

“The ratio is not sufficient enough for meaningful development in the country.

“It must be stressed that we require attaining a seven per cent GDP growth rate to achieve significant development,” he said.

He said that tackling corruption in the public places was fundamental to improving the living standard of the people.

A senior lecturer in the Department of Economics, Moshood Abiola University, formerly Unilag,Dr.Tunde Adeoye, said that it was possible for an economy to be growing without developing.

He said that development in infrastructure and institutional capabilities were absent in the country.

“There is wide gap between growth and development, and until our government bridges that gap, we will continue to experience growth without development, “ he said.

Another lecturer in same University, Dr. Ajide Bello, said that absence of adequate infrastructure was affecting Nigeria’s economic growth potentials.

He said to grow and develop at the same time, the economy needed to increase its national production output, decrease its government spending and increase institutional service delivery.

Bello also bemoaned the situation whereby only the oil sector contributed majorly to the nation’s GDP ratio.

“Nothing concrete can be said to be really happening if government does not achieve the three components of growth and development together,” he said.

Source: Punch