Soludo at Vanguard forum, Soludo berates APC economic policy, says the Govt has made naira worse than it met it

Soludo at Vanguard forum, Soludo berates APC economic policy, says the Govt has made naira worse than it met it

By Theresa Igata

Nigeria may be at a crossroads in view of the current decline in the price of crude oil and stagflation. But leading economists, financial experts, and political and public policy executives have called for a clear cut direction to policy implementation and attitudinal change for policies to work if the economy must progress.

This is coming at the backdrop of the federal government’s economic recovery action plan where it released the 2017-2020 Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, which sets the stage for further fast-tracking of economic recovery and diversification.

Speaking at the Vanguard Economic Discourse with the theme: The Hard Facts to Rescue the Nigerian Economy, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Charles Soludo alluded to the fact that nothing has changed much in terms of policy implementation since the takeover of government by the APC. “In less than 2 years we have reduced the value of the naira more than we met it”, he said.

Soludo who was the keynote speaker at the event said that the nation has made too much efforts trying to re-invent the wheel and has refused/failed to learn from the boost and boom era of oil as no coherent strategy was put in place during post oil boom days.

With government still spending over 100 per cent on recurrent expenditure, the country has continued to witness an unprecedented debt accumulation. He added however that the ownership of the EGRP, which is to help in economic recovery, will determine whether it is merely a PR document or will be implemented.

For the minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, the lack of implementation of previous plan has led us to where we are today. Fayemi who was a panellist added that the country has to restructure for sustainable growth fi the country will witness an economic renaissance.

Private sector investment to the rescue

The private sector no doubt is said to play a pivotal role in driving any economy and for Nigeria to get out of recession investments have to be brought to the stable.

This was the submission of the Director General, DG, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, Muda Yusuf.

According to him, “creating the right policy, tackling transparency issues, fixed liquidity issues in the FX market and full liberalisation of FX inflow into the country will create room for more private sector participation which will help gradually push the country out of recession”.

Yusuf added that the effect of monetary policy has had its toll on trade policy which is important also to help reduce poverty and high cost of living of goods and services.

National Consensus: Restructuring and Implementation of plans

Nigeria has been said to lack a national consensus with regard to national development. This was alluded to by a former deputy governor of the CBN, Obadiah Mailafia who added that Nigeria must industrialise or die; laying credence to the fact of the nation’s teeming youth population that must be given the opportunities to be innovative and creative for economic progress.

While a restructuring of the polity and economy has become necessary; we have to cut cost of governance which has become very expensive according to Ale Otti, former gubernatorial candidate, Abia State.