The Industry Newspapers, organisers of The Industry Summit, a marketing communications event, at the fourth edition of our event resolved that:
1. That, big data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.
2. That, to sum, business is about having foresight, agility, scale and tenacity and extraction of implicit, previously unknown and potentially useful information from data is essential.
3. That measurements, efficiencies, intelligence and government policy shifts are the operative parameters for renewed economic growth.
4. FDI fell from $261.35m in Q2 2018 to $147.16m in Q2 2022 or a compound annual decline of -13.39% in the last half decade.
5. That, some may tend to attribute the declining FDI as stated to COVID-19 issues between 2019-2020. This is not entirely true because countries like India and China saw a rapid rise in FDI in the two years despite the outbreak of the pandemic. Since the mid-2000s, China and India have seen FDI soar as both countries beat the poverty trap.
6. The simple reason why China and India have continuously recorded rising FDI is their policy thrust that has placed emphasis on productivity and workforce quality. The two countries have set a national work ethos that has made their citizens among the most productive on the planet.
7. Nigeria has unfortunately been largely plagued by policy inconsistencies, reversals and lack of coherence. between 1960-2000, real income per capita grew at only 0.43% per year.
8. That, 2001-2006, real per capita GDP grew at an annual rate of 4.2%. The difference between the two periods is simply due to policy choices. The improved performance between 2001-2006 was owing to a comprehensive economic reform program via the National Economic Empowerment and Development.
9. That, Strategy (NEEDS). NEEDS encompassed important structural reforms designed to enhance the transparency and accountability of public sector policies and institutions. It focused on improving the macroeconomic environment, pursuing structural reforms, strengthening public expenditure management, and implementing institutional and governance reforms.
10. The outcome of 2023 election petitions and national population census (NPC) will impact how Marketers will handle 2023 and subsequent years, but how positively or negatively, remains a matter of conjecture.
11. That, the World Bank in its Global Economic Prospects (January 2023) makes it clear that the pronounced weaknesses of the United States, Europe and China, which are described as ‘the world’s three major engines of growth, would have ‘adverse spillovers for emerging markets and developing economies
12 That, it is safe to say that Marketers should expect a bumpy ride in 2023. In Nigeria, for instance, when you throw in a mish-mash of the country’s low crude production, weak exports, the dynamics of the workplace and importantly, a budget deficit of N11.34 trillion, derived from a projected total revenue of N10.49 trillion and total expenditure of N21.83 trillion, budgeted by the outgoing Buhari administration, it is easy to infer that the picture is far from rosy either for the country’s economy or, more strongly, for us in the Marketing Communication Industry.
13. Sequel to the discussion, it was agreed that the story is not all gloomy. As it is a known fact that Nigeria, more than even some more developed economies, is a land of opportunities. Its handlers only need to get their acts together; rid the system of corruption and lethargy and the country shall rise again.
14. measurements, efficiencies, intelligence and government policy shifts are the operative parameters for renewed economic growth.
15. That, to sum, business is about having foresight, agility, scale and tenacity and extraction of implicit, previously unknown and potentially useful information from data is essential.
16. Public policy processes which are about governance and development should be about people’s needs and for their good. Therefore, the principles should be efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness, consensus and adequate participation of the people in a transparent and accountable process.
17. There is no straight jacket measure that can be applied to the country to achieve maximum gain without understanding the sensitivities of the different regions in the country otherwise one will be setting himself up for failure.
18. Data is key, without data we may not get the hindsight we need to achieve a specific target.
19. However, data and hindsight are not enough, how much we do with the information given our particular target is most key. True success comes from operationalizing the insight you have gotten and ensuring the brand messages are optimized.
20. We should not ignore the first technology which is human beings because of its ability to use cognitive skills to be able to look at things holistically and predict rather than depend on the machine alone.
