Reforms: CPPE Tasks FG on Striking a Balancing Act, Strategic Sequencing to Engender Inclusive Economic Transition

Dike Onwuamaeze

The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE) has advised the federal government to strike a delicate balancing act and strategic sequencing in the implementation of its economic reform programmes in order to engender inclusive economic transition.

This advice was given by an Economist and Founder of CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, in a press statement titled, “Comments on the Second Quarter 2023 GDP,” in which he remarked that the adverse impacts of the reforms are disproportionately higher than expected. 

Yusuf said: “The Nigerian economy is still going through corrective reforms to remove some fundamental distortions and restore the economy back to the path of recovery and growth.  But implementing the reforms is an arduous task as the tradeoffs are profound and the social impact has been devastating. Given the inevitability of the reforms, their implementations call for a delicate balancing act and strategic sequencing to ensure an inclusive economic transition.”

He added that, “dealing with the issues of insecurity, spending priorities, corruption, productivity and competitiveness, regulatory environment and macroeconomic stability are paramount to rebuilding the momentum of economic growth and development.”

Commenting on the recently released Q2’23 GDP report by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Yusuf, who was the immediate past director general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce, said that “the Q2 GDP growth fell short of the sub-Sahara projected average of 3.1 per cent for 2023 but is better than projections for the Euro Zone of 1.0 per cent and the United States of 1.8 per cent.   

According to him, the NBS reported that the Nigerian economy “improved marginally by 20 bases points from 2.31 per cent in the first quarter of 2023 to 2.51 per cent in the second quarter. However, it slowed when compared to second quarter of 2022 which was 3.54 per cent.”