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Chuks Udo Okonta
Risk managers have been told to harness opportunities associated with risks and make more positive contributions to the development of the economy.
The Managing Director Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited Dr. Kabir Adamu, said this while speaking on a topic; Global Economic Disruptions – Opportunities and Challenges for National Resurgence at the 2024 National Risk Management Conference and Awards Ceremony, organised by Risk Managers Society of Nigeria (RIMSON) yesterday in Lagos, stating that while some events are happenstance and risky, some if not all risks come with opportunities that the managers tend to overlook even as professionals.
“One of the opportunities that I would want you to leverage in the face of these disruptions is ‘making yourselves visible’ by exacting the ingenuity that comes with the prestigious and unequaled professional of risk management.
“Advise your organizations on the alternatives that would yield the expected or even greater returns. Be at the forefront and lead your organization from a portfolio viewpoint,” he said.
He tasked the managers to get additional training, education, and certifications required to deliver proficiently in their current role because they cannot give what they do not have.
Adamu submitted that most importantly, the managers should pay attention to always-evolving global economic trends and understand the statistics which would enable them to advise their organisations using undisputable facts and figures as that is the only way they can make informed decisions.
“These opportunities may seem micro, but it is a collection of all the collective activities at the microeconomics level that accumulate into what is obtained at the macroeconomics level. This naturally has a ripple effect on the national economy which is why the government and the people of Nigeria are looking up to you to bring your expertise to bear at all times,” he posited.
Continuing he said:
“Nigeria’s economy experienced broad-based and sustained growth of about seven per cent from 2000 to 2014 annually due to global conditions that are different from what we are experiencing today. However, the economy saw a steady decline from 2015 to 2022 as a result of monetary and exchange rates policy distortions, a reduction in oil production led to fiscal deficits and an expensive fuel subsidy regime, and even the shock from the Covid-19 pandemic, and a flattened GDP culminated into a sluggish or weakened economy where inflation rate snowballed 31.7 per cent in February 2024, the highest in the last 24 years. This explains why most Nigerians now live in poverty.
“The current government has embarked on bold reforms whose impacts are not likely to be felt immediately but are invaluable in putting the economy of Nigeria on the right track. Whilst the oil sector is expected to stabilize, sustained economic growth will require structural reforms.
“The World Bank Institute projects that the poverty rate will increase in 2024 and 2025 before eventually stabilizing in 2026.”
According to him, some of the challenges that may be imminent in our quest for economic resurgence would include:
Weak monetary policy tightening; inability of the government to address imbalances in the pricing of petroleum products; inability of the government to stimulate revenue growth in the non-oil sectors; adverse climate shocks and rising spate of insecurity across the country, stressing that risk managers must bring their expertise to bear in stimulating the Nigerian economy.
He submitted that the private sector’s inability to create jobs and entrepreneurial prospects stifle the absorption of as many as 3.5 million Nigerians entering the labor market annually, adding that we are also faced with the challenge of some of our talented workforce leaving the country in search of greener pastures and that Nigeria has the second largest poor population in the world behind India with about 87 million Nigerians living below the poverty line.
He posited that because the managers are a risk professional, their roles are strategic in facilitating the achievement of resilience and the provision of sustainable guidance for their organisations on how to stay above the waters during times like this.
“The aggregation of your efforts is what your employers and the Nigerian state are relying on for an economic resurgence and we all cannot afford to fail, not now and not ever,” he added.
According to him to do this the risk managers need to strengthen their understanding of the risk management spectrum and its application across all spheres.
He noted that RIMSON as a professional body is well placed to do this, noting that however, to effectively and efficiently do so, it must expand its approaches in adopting equity, diversity and inclusion and in ensuring that its engagement strategy is focused and intentional.
