A Co-ordinator of Economics Department, College of Arts, Social And Management Sciences, Crescent University Abeokuta, Mr.Raheem Kamilu has stressed the need for full involvement of Economists in the formulation and implementation of policies in governance to make the country work for Nigerians
The don who was speaking with Edu-Biznews Career Guides crew in his office, accused political class of hijacking economic policies initiated by Economists at the point of implementation, making it difficult for such policies to achieve their objectives of impacting meaningfully on the lives of the people
He blamed policies failure in the country on politisation of economic policies to favour certain set people in government , lamenting that every poverty alleviation policy failed to achieve desired objectives for people because of manner by which such a policy was hijacked
" A lot of countries have adopted Structural Adjustments Programme(SAP) which are working for them but when Nigeria adopted SAP as economic policy , it didn't achieve the desired outcome. For instance, Low cost Housing Policy initiated by government for low income earners to have access to affordable houses but such policy failed and houses built ended in the hands of the rich and not low income earners who are expected to be beneficiaries of the policy . We have Brilliant Economists who had advised government one way or the other, is either the government is not making use of them or ready to implement the policies or when implemented the policies are hijacked or truncated ", he decried
"Only when policies are implemented the way they were conceived, that we will have desired results in the country. All development plans we have in this country are laudable but the objectives of those development plans are yet to be achieved "
The don maintained that Economists should be allowed to implement content of economic policies to the latter to achieve the desired positive results while stressing the need for proper monitoring of policies to assess their impact on economic
He explained that such assessment would determine whether such policies are working or not or if there is need for necessary reforms to make the policies have more meaningful impact on the people
The don expressed confidence in the career prospects of Economics Graduates, saying they can fit into all aspects of human endeavours because every aspect has its own economy
Economics according to him, has two parts " Economics Theories and Applied Economic
"Anybody who studied Economics as a course of study in university can work in virtually every where in banks , corporate organizations and public sector "
" In fact they work as Planning Officers in local government administration, ministries, departments and agencies of government at the state and federal government levels . You find Economics Graduates as personnel in the Budget and Planning Ministry of government, even in the Foreign Affairs office. You find them in Managerial positions based on their deep knowledge of Managerial Economics "
The Co-ordinator of Economics Department at the Crescent University added that Economic Graduates equally have the opportunities of becoming Chartered Bankers and Chartered Accountants taking relevant professional courses at CIBN and ICAN Examinations given their background training at the undergraduate level. They are operate as Stockbrokers because they are well grounded in stock trading
Economics according to him, is about optimization of available scarce resources, it deals with optimization of resources to achieve the desired outcome. It is allocation of scarce resources in most efficient ways
He explained that Economics as a course of study at the university has three agents including individual/ house hold, firm and government
For individual/house hold is about optimizing available scarce resources to meet the family needs in the house while for firms, the set objectives is about profit maximization while for government is to maximize resources for social welfare of people. Economics is about optimizing or making good use of available scarce resources to meet demands of the society
He further broke down the course content of Economics to include two parts Economics Theories and Applied Economics
"Economics Theories deals with Micro and Macro Economies, Micro-Economy is about individual economy while aggregation of the economy is seen as Macro-Economy
The don added that Economics was about applying theories to aspects of human activities which he listed to include " Monetary Economics, Health Economics, Labour Economics, International Economics and Managerial Economics
For prospective students seeking to study Economics as a discipline at the university level, he/she must have the below subjects at the Ordinary Level: Five Subjects at not more than two sittings including English Language, Mathematics, Economics and any other two Social Science subjects: Geography/Commerce/Government/Accounting/ Book keeping either in Senior School Certificate or NECO SSCE or GCE
For Direct Entry into 200 level, he or she must have relevant Ordinary National Diploma from reputable polytechnic, or JUPEB, IJMB Examinations
No comments:
Post a Comment