(Ecofin Agency) - The Ministry of Budget and National Planning and the Sub-Regional Office for West Africa of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) have launched Nigeria’s 2016 Country Profile. Launched in Abuja, the initiative is aimed at providing analysis and recommendations vital to the country’s drive towards economic and social transformation.

The new country profile highlights Nigeria’s major problem to be shortage of electricity. It said for the country to fast track its economic transformation, the country needs to encourage competitiveness, increase productivity and strengthen local production capacity. In achieving this, the nation must reverse its over two decades of deficits in fields such as electricity generation, transmission and distribution, intensify efforts to set up a market-oriented policy to promote a secure and competitive energy supply at affordable prices, amongst others.

“We cannot envisage the structural transformation of African economies without addressing the energy issue. For example, hydroelectricity provides an important source of energy, largely unexploited on the continent: only 5% of the continent’s hydroelectric potential is exploited. In our efforts to achieve structural change in our economies, the energy issue is well ranked at the top of the process. Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Nigeria and Sudan have considerable potential in this area, which must be harnessed not only for national economies but also for Africa in general,” Dimitri Sanga, Director of ECA’s Sub-Regional Office for West Africa, said.

ECA is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Its Sub-Regional Office for West Africa aims to support the development of 15 countries across the sub region by helping them formulate and implement policies and programs that support their economic and social transformation. The ECA Country Profiles were designed in 2015.

Anita Fatunji