Expert Tasks Incoming Government On Need To Boost Economy
Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Limited Bismarck Rewane, has charged the incoming administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to break away from tradition and take tough decisions that will boost the economy.
According to Rewane in the monthly FDC publication, poor decision-making will almost always lead to less-than-desirable outcomes.
Rewane said that when the new administration takes over, it would be burdened by the tepid growth of three percent, ballooning inflation of 22.04 percent, and elevated debt level (N70trn).
He frowned at the recent conversation of the huge loan the government took through Ways and Means and converted to about a 40 years bond.
Are we free from debt’s wrecking ball? No! It’s only a bookkeeping exercise that took place when the National Assembly approved the transformation of Ways & Means advances (N22 trillion) to a 40-year bond at a nine percent interest rate.
“In truth, this was nothing but a home-grown definition of securitization, looking more like warehousing than an orthodox financing model. This is because the instrument lies in the balance sheet of the CBN and is not for sale to the public, which is the way typical securitization processes work (sell your debt, buy time to generate revenue, and when it’s time, pay the debt)”.
He warned the country’s policymakers to tread cautiously about the level of desperation as they react to the challenges that would confront them.
“It is important because Nigeria is already on edge; one misstep and the economy erupts”, he said.
Rewane advised that, a good starting point for them to understand the underlying structural problems that weaken the economy and stunt its growth prospects.
“What the past three years has shown is that Nigeria’s economy is fragile and highly vulnerable to external shocks, and there’s a huge need for fiscal and monetary policy coordination to boost market confidence.
“The economic indicators are mostly negative at this point in time. GDP is sluggish (3.2 percent in 2022) when it should be in double-digits, inflation is astronomical (22%) when prices are falling globally, the external debt to export ratio is 64.9 percent, signaling an impending debt service crunch, and there are too many uncertainties and worsening volatility in the oil markets.
Source: blueprint.ng
