By Babatude Ayedoju,
Kayode Olabanji,
& Jimoh Ahmed
|
Nigeria needs to effect major structural changes in her key productive sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture and technology, described as drivers of economic growth so as to boost her foreign earnings.
By so doing, the government would be diversifying the nation’s economic base and creating the enabling environment for export .
The experts in separate interviews with The Hope listed these measures as instruments capable of ending the persistent scarcity of dollar and the free fall of the value of the nation’s currency,the naira.
They also blamed the political class and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the foreign exchange crisis that has pummeled Nigerians’ living standard.
They noted that scarcity of dollar have caused the spiral increase in prices of petrol and other goods which experts said if care is not taken might get out of hand
According to them, if the current economic trend continues in the country, the economy may totally collapse.
A financial expert, Mallam Aminullah Kareem suggested that President Tinubu should assemble crack economic team to bail the country out of the situation.
He equally suggested trade restrictions, ban on some selected imports while other monetary measures should be introduced to address the country’s balance of trade and payment.
Similarly, Aminullah called for efforts to reduce the increase in prices of goods in the country and the provision of loans for industries to produce goods for export market.
He advised the government to attract foreign investors to the country through the provision of infrastructures.
Dr Chris Ofonyelu from the Department of Economics, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, who blamed the political class and the CBN said that Nigerians have lost trust in the CBN’s monetary policy which over the years has become weak, adding that the situation makes a lot of people prefer holding on to the dollar.
He also blamed the CBN over hoarding of dollar. He said.” They are the ones giving it to people. The BDCs are their third party, while the parallel market operators are their agents.”
He, therefore, recommended that the CBN should do everything possible to regain the trust of Nigerians.
Dr Suraj Mahmud, an economist and a public finance expert, wants the country to stop over reliance on oil as the major source of revenue.
Suraj enjoined the government to take the manufacturing sector seriously.
“One of the best and assured ways of economic development is structural change – the movement of labour from low productivity (e.g. agriculture) into higher productivity.
Nigeria is yet to experience major structural change as agriculture and services (informal and formal) employ around 91% of Nigerians and account for 77.8% of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019, with manufacturing accounting for only 9% of real GDP in 2019.
“Manufacturing also makes it possible in increasing the productivity in agriculture and services by creating tools.
Importantly, diversifying to manufacturing reduces the macroeconomic risks associated with over dependence on volatile commodities for government revenue and foreign exchange”.
He equally suggested that Nigeria can decide to influence the decisions of entrepreneurs through industrial policies.
“Challenging entrepreneurs requires setting targets they have to meet before they qualify to access cheap credit and protected markets. Supporting them entails providing resources and access.
Similarly, Pastor Festus Oloye, a political scientist and a farmer, wants the government to take agriculture seriously.
Oloye posited that Nigeria, richly blessed with fertile land has no reason to import food items.
According to him, when food items are produced abundantly, they can also be exported and earn foreign exchange which in turn can give the country a favourable balance of trade and payment.
Dr Bayo Fasunwon from the Department of Political Science, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, opined that Nigeria’s economy has been dollarised, adding that such a situation always leads to high exchange rate.
Citing examples of countries like Russia and China which have had to bypass the dollar in international transactions at some point, Fasunwon stated that less dependence on the dollar would strengthen the naira.
His words: “As long as your economy is dollarised, those who have the foreign currency will continue to hoard it. ECOWAS needs to wake up and have their own currency, because even neighbouring African countries opt for dollar when doing transactions and that is what is giving the dollar power.”
Fasunwon said that government should increase production capacity of Nigerians and provide electricity, so that we would not need to import everything, including what can be produced locally.
He said, “You don’t need to export all your crude oil. You can refine it here and get another 15 products from your crude oil.
Shittu Daniel Abiodun, an Accountant insisted that the monetary policy of the government needs to be looked into and advised the incoming Finance Minister and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun to hit the ground running by ensuring stability in the market.
“Section 20 sub section of the CBN Acts provides that the only legal tender in Nigeria shall be the currency notes issued by the CBN, which is the naira, section 20 subsection 5 provides that any body who spends any other currency in Nigeria without the approval of the CBN had committed an offence and shall be prosecuted, the penalty is six months imprisonment. You ask yourself, government should not allow government’s property to be sold in dollar, rent to be collected in dollar and some school fees to paid in dollar.
