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Former presidential candidate, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has said Nigeria is on course for a huge economic growth based on the financial and economic reforms embarked upon by the President Bola Tinubu administration.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, yesterday, he noted that the current policy reforms have eliminated distortions in the foreign exchange management on the one hand and the removal of the corrupt system of oil subsidies on the other hand.
Olawepo-Hashim said the new administration, according to a report, inherited an economy with gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates for 2022 at 3.1 per cent and for the first quarter of 2023 at 2.31 per cent. The 2022 trade surplus at only $2.85 billion dwindles in comparison to 2014’s $54.1 billion. Also, Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria’s economy fell from $2.2 billion in 2014 to $0.47 billion in 2022, while budget deficit rose by 370.54 per cent from 2016 to 2023. Total public debt as of June 2013 was N7.93 trillion. It’s now at around N77 trillion.
“But, in the last one month, the president has announced two major economic reforms: ending petrol subsidies and unification of the Naira’s multiple exchange rates.
“Before now, in Nigeria, there were four foreign exchange (FX) markets: the Interbank FX market, the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, Bureau De Change (BDC) window, and the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) window. However, due to the limited FX supply from exporters and foreign investors, the CBN played a significant role in supplying FX (in this case, USD) to these windows.”
Olawepo-Hashim, however, stated that the policy to unify the exchange windows should have a long-term positive effect on foreign exchange rate and free flow of capital in the country while also yielding a positive impact due to increased confidence in the new government.
He said the removal of subsidies regime in the pricing of petroleum products would stimulate more investment in mid and downstream subsectors of the oil and gas sectors with a net effect of creation of value added needed jobs.
He stressed that the new law on decentralisation of electricity generation, transmission and distribution if properly implemented with concomitant policies, “is capable of attracting about $300 billion over five to seven years into the electricity sector from local and foreign financing sources.”
He also explained that Nigeria, at per capital comparison with South Africa, needs to generate, transmit and distribute about 200,000 MW of electricity, and added that “we can, if we stay steadfast to needed reform. Nigeria recorded that fit before with liberalization of the telecom sector as she moved from a nation of 400,000 telephone lines in 1999 to a nation of 222 million active lines now.”
While stressing the importance of a naira exchange rate based on market indicators and informed projections to settle around N660 to $1in the exchange market within the next six to nine months, he urged government to “pay attention to immediate deployment of relevant social intervention programmes to cushion the effect of inflation on the burgeoning numbers of the poor.”
Olawepo-Hashim also stressed that “our economic growth expectations must be inclusive and must not leave the majority of our people behind. It is a great season of hope and confidence for Nigeria. The nation is steadily on to an assured future as an economic powerhouse and great nation. Nigeria, with the right policy mix, will exceed the projection of Price WaterHouse Cooper that Nigeria will be the ninth largest economy in the world by 2050.”
“We are capable of hitting the great economic milestone predicted by PWC much earlier and climbing higher on the ladder.”
