– Analysts see an economic doom
– Ashbourne believes the country’s foreign exchange policy is not doing any good.
Nigeria is hitting the worst economic situation in its history, Business Insider is reporting.
The report quoted the country’s bureau of
statistics as revealing that the economy fell by 0.4% in the first quarter year-over-year and declaring that this is way worse than expected.
Nigerians are not having the best of times.
While quoting economists as saying they
expected the country to grow by 1.8% year-over-year.
It however said recent developments had put paid to this hope as analysts are not feeling well about the situation.
For example, an economist for Capital
Economics, John Ashbourne, said: “We have long warned of a slow-burning crisis in Nigeria".
“It now seems that this view was too
optimistic: the country is headed into a full-blown economic crisis.”
The report says Nigeria continues to suffer from numerous economic headaches which include poor crude prices and the uncertainty in foreign exchange.
Ashbourne said the biggest drop in the
country’s growth was in the manufacturing sector and that this is because of the tight policy on foreign trade.
“This is very bad news for Nigeria’s
government, which has justified the current FX system as a method of promoting non-oil industries".
“It is now clear that these policies have — as we’d long argued — made a bad situation worse,” Ashbourne reportedly said.
Ashbourne believes “the worst is yet to
come.”
Nigeria is currently faced with a myriad of
problems which include attacks on oil
installations, an unprecedented scale in the prices of commodities, fuel scarcity that is just currently being resolved and economic uncertainties.
Earlier, founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and the national chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria, Dr Frederick Fasehun, had asked President Muhammadu Buhari to graft former Governor of Central Bank, Chukwuma Soludo, and Professor Pat Utomi into his economic team to revive the country’s dwindling economy.
Dr Fasehun who said Buhari’s cabinet is an insult to Nigerian financial experts also said the economic team should be made up of former Presidential candidate and secretary to the government of the federation, Chief Olu Falae.
“A review of the government’s economic
team shows that it is made up of persons
occupying their offices by nepotism and
political expediency.
Buhari’s current cabinet is an insult to Nigerian economic wizards at home and in the Diaspora.
“This weakness became apparent with the mishandling of the 2016 budget.There is an urgent need for a complete overhauling of the government’s economic team."
“The government should quickly draft into gits economic management team Chief Olu Falae, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mrs.Nenadi Usman, Chief Isiaka Adeleke, Dr.Shamsudeen Usman, Prof. Pat Utomi, Dr.Chukwuma Soludo and Chief Frank Kokori,” Fasehun said.
Naij.com
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