Calls Grow Louder as Nigerians Crave Solid Economic Solutions, Not Rhetoric

As Nigerians look forward to a better 2024, members of the organised private sector last week expressed shock that seven months after, the President Bola Tinubu administration’s testimonial is still in the realm of promises instead of reeling out its achievements, Festus Akanbi writes

In response to the growing hardship in the land, President Bola Tinubu in his New Year speech reassured Nigerians of his readiness to fix the economy currently haemorrhaging due to the implementation of certain policies by his administration.

The hard times being experienced were triggered by surging inflation which manifested in the rising energy and food costs.

Most of these challenges are the aftermath of the petrol subsidy removal, foreign exchange reforms and insecurity. These have combined to put businesses on edge with some multinationals announcing their exit from the country, while some domestic ones are folding up. Multinationals which announced their planned exit included GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Procter & Gamble (P&G), and Sanofi, among others.The latest victim of the harsh environment among local manufacturing firms is the Akwa Ibom-based Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company, said to be the Africa’s largest syringe producer. It announced the closure of its operations last week.

A few days after the speech, the consensus was that the speech was all about promises without concrete achievements in the seven months the government has been holding sway.

Key Takeaways from the Speech

One of the major highlights of the president’s promises in the New Year broadcast included a renewed commitment to boost foreign and local investments. Vowing to make Nigeria a preferred location for both domestic and foreign investments in 2024, Tinubu pledged to clear any obstacles on the way. However, critics wondered how he plans to achieve this considering the apathy of foreign investors according to the latest data rolled out by the National Bureau of Statistics that indicated that 28 states had zero FDI inflow in the period under review.

Tinubu also reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring reliable power supply through power installation projects nationwide. 

However, analysts lamented his inability to turn things around in the power sector in the first seven months of his administration with the average power distribution hovering around 4,000 megawatts.

Another issue raised was that of the Modular, Port Harcourt and Dangote Refinery which is to begin operation this year. The president also stated that the local refineries, the Port Harcourt refinery as well as the privately-owned Dangote refinery will begin operation this year although his promise that the Port Harcourt Refinery would begin operation before the end of last year couldn’t materialise.  

Also on the list of the president’s promises was the implementation of a new living wage for workers. The President affirmed his commitment to increase the living wage of workers in the year 2024. 

On this, analysts wondered where he plans to raise money for the proposed wage given the difficulty of paying the December 2023 salary to the federal government workers. 

The president also noted that his administration will reform the tax and fiscal policies to enable a thriving business environment. He added that he will not hesitate to remove any clog hindering local and foreign investment in the country. 

Critics believe this is a tall dream since the government hasn’t shown enough examples in the area of fiscal discipline. They pointed out that the situation is so bad that even some banks are beginning to complain of a lack of cash to meet the demand of depositors. They drew attention to the exit of some companies and those planning to leave the country such as Jumia and Shoprite, among others.

Another issue that came up in the speech was that of food security and affordability. According to President Tinubu, the primary objectives on his agenda list are ensuring food security and reducing food inflation.  

He said, “To ensure constant food supply, security and affordability, we will step up our plan to cultivate 500,000 hectares of farmlands across the country to grow maize, rice, wheat, millet and other staple crops. We launched the dry season farming with 120,000 hectares of land in Jigawa State last November under our National Wheat Development Programme,” the President said. 

Speaking on an ARISE NEWS programme last week, Chief Economist at SPM Professionals, Paul Alaje said the task of fixing the economy is beyond Tinubu. He insisted that other key ministers should be held responsible for the current economic challenges. For instance, he maintained that the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Olawale Edun, has the responsibility of utilising fiscal policy to transform the Nigerian economy into a production-oriented one.

Loopholes in the Proposal

He also faulted the president’s plan for small and medium-scale enterprises, stressing the need to review the proposal. On SMEs, Alaje stated that both the money and target number are small saying “How can we be targeting 500,000 out of 40 million (SMEs)?” He also noted that the equivalent of the proposed N1 million is, today, about N500,000.

Tackling Inflation

On its part, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called on the President to provide more detailed plans and strategies to tackle inflation, under-employment, security, and social inequality in the country.

The LCCI made this call in a statement by its Director General, Dr. Chinyere Almona, as a reaction to the President’s New Year message. The chamber insisted that the government needed to provide more detailed plans and strategies to tackle all the challenges identified by the president, which included inflation, under-employment, security, and social inequality. “A transparent and inclusive approach to governance will contribute to building public confidence and achieving sustainable economic growth,” the statement said.

However, LCCI cautions that the productivity of the farmlands and the effectiveness of investments in food production are subject to adequate security measures. The chamber warned that “Investment in agriculture has a limited chance of success as long as the government fails to deal with the security issues.

Shedding more light on the chamber’s position, the President and Chairman of the Council of the LCCI, Mr. Gabriel Idahosa, who spoke on the ARISE NEWS live programme last week, said it had become a serious risk for anybody to spend quality time on farmlands these days as a result of the growing security risk in the country, saying there is no way any meaningful achievement could be recorded in agriculture when the farmers are not safe.

The Group Executive Director of Cordros Capital Limited, Mr. Femi Ademola, told THISDAY that it is a very good idea for the government to focus on a few important issues that tend to spur economic growth.

According to him, by implementing strategies to boost food security, deliver reliable power and ensure local refining of petrol, the country’s manufacturing and other productive sectors could benefit quite significantly.

He believed the removal of obstacles that impede business competitiveness through the necessary fiscal reforms would lead to economic transformation and the implementation of a new national living wage for workers would also positively affect the social challenges faced by the citizens. He, however, stressed that the achievement of these objectives depends on several embedded tasks and actions that must be implemented within the year.

Speaking further, he said several other aspects of the economy need to be fixed, such as security and failing infrastructure. “However, some of these issues would be fixed indirectly through the achievement of the objectives identified by the president. Some of the issues are tasks to be sorted in the bid to achieve the broad objectives of the government,” he said.

Another analyst and the Managing Director of SD&D Capital Management Limited, Mr. Idakolo Gbolade, believed the targets set by Mr. President are achievable if the performance evaluation unit in the presidency does its job. According to him, when the drivers of government initiatives like ministers and heads of MDA know they are evaluated every quarter, they will sit up. He added that the determination of the government should also be backed by funding to ensure the effective execution of the various targets.

On the whole, analysts believe that rather than inspiring hope and confidence, the speech regrettably was full of promises without a concrete plan to address the growing hardship in the land. Having been in the saddle for the past seven months, Nigerians expected the President to reel out his achievements and not to regale them with a rehash of promises given on May 27, 2023.