.Advocate better synergy among CBN, Finance Ministry, economic managers
.As Unegbu demands full autonomy for Apex Bank to perform its functions
.Make agriculture your major focus, improve fertilizer supply, Chekwas Okorie tells FG
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Maxifund Investment Securities, Mazi Okechukwu Unegbu has called on the Federal Government to pay more attention to increased production of essential goods in order to tackle the nation’s rising inflation.
He said, unless the nation starts producing most of the goods it consumes, inflation rate will continue to rise.
Similarly, an economist, Dr. Chuks Okafor urged government at all levels to make concerted efforts towards “constant synergy and engagement with stakeholders to rejig the economic sector.”
Recall that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently said inflation rate rose to 28.92 per cent in December 2023 from 28.20 per cent in November.
The statistics office said the December 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.72 per cent points when compared to the November 2023 headline inflation rate.
But reacting to this, Unegbu in a telephone interview with Daily Champion said the President Bola Tinubu administration is trying to wish things away.
According to him, it is not by wishing things away, it is by productive activities to ensure there is employment.
Unegbu maintained that the main determinant of inflation in Nigeria is the food inflation, saying that this will continue to rise because the nation is not producing enough.
He said everything we consume here in Nigeria are almost imported and that is not good for any economy.
He further noted that there is need for a very good cooperation between the Finance Ministry, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), economic planners and the budget planners .
According to him, “Once they come together, it will make sense for them to do the right thing, and until that is done, it is not going to be that possible for the economy to grow effectively. I am very much worried at the present state of the Nigerian economy, because it is not moving till now.
“I think President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assembled a good Economic Team and apparently, he is not using them and we have people opposing various plans, either that of CBN. I was surprised that the Northern Elders Forum was opposing what the CBN wanted to do in terms of relocation.”.
“Very soon we will end the first quarter of 2024, but it appears the economic plans are not being addressed, and this is a big issue,” he said.
He however said that if the President and the politicians can give the economic managers, the CBN governor, the Ministry of Finance, the freedom to perform their functions, it will be very good for the economy.
“But when they are doing the right thing, the politicians will go ahead and oppose them and bring things that are not right for the economy, and that is where the problem is.
“So we need to allow these economic managers to do their job. And once they start working, we should be patient to see what they are doing.
“They have come up with so many plans, but unfortunately those plans cannot work when the politicians are busy doing a different thing
“Inflation rate is actually 29 per cent and 30 per cent is here already because we are not doing the right thing. We have serious borrowing that is harming the economy. The exchange rate is not friendly,” he said.
On rising inflation rate, an economist, Dr. Chuks Okafor blamed systematic failure been responsible for deprecating economy.
He said successive Nigeria government over the yes have failed to develop a viable economic blue print that would stand a test of time.
While commending President Ahmed Bola Tinubu bold step towards reducing cost of governance, he noted that much more is needed to revamp and stabilize the economy and reduce inflation to a barest minimum.
According to him, “the current economy realities before us, as far as this nation is concerned portends danger to our future. And you cannot run and witness genuine economic productivity in the midst of deteriorating economic condition.
“Economy sustainability is something that involved chain of production. Therefore, government at all levels should make concerted effort towards constant synergy and engagement with stakeholders to rejig the economic sector.”
Make agriculture your major focus, improve fertilizer supply, Okorie tells FG
Also speaking with one of our correspondents, the pioneer National Chairman, All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and Presidential candidate of the defunct United Progressive Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie said,”I think where the inflation is mostly pronounced is in the area of staple food for people to eat because that is the one that nobody can decide for any reason to skip. If you tackle the food security aspect, other things will follow. But then, how do you tackle the food aspect when the farmers are not safe to go to farm to cultivate.
So, the government has the responsibility to make sure that the farmers are secured when they go to their farms. Government also has to improve on the supply of fertilizer to make their yield to improve. So, agriculture should be the major focus of this government.
They are already devoting so much resources to infrastructure which is very important, it should also focus attention on agriculture.
“As for the increasing rate of foreign exchange, the issue here is the availability of food for people to eat. Now we are happy that our refineries are beginning to come on stream. The normal excuses being giving before now is gradually coming to an end. At least the present development makes one believe that the era of scarcity of petroleum products is now over.
“Again what is been done to check stealing of crude oil and all that, is gradually coming to an end. I am impressed that measures are beginning to yield result. We never have imagined that thousands of illegal refineries in creeks but now, they are being identified using technology.
“Some are being destroyed, operators are being arrested and that has opened new wave of production and export. What that means is more foreign exchange income to the country and that will reduce overtime the pressure on our Naira”
