For Nigeria to get out of her economic recession, a combination of robust and workable ideas and policies are required, an expert and Managing Consultant, Nesbet Consulting, a Lagos firm of finance and management consultancy, Mr. Alaba Olusemore, has said.
Speaking to The Nation, Olusemore said there was the need to first take a critical look at those articulating the policies that drive the economy with a view to ensuring that they are “round pegs in round holes.”
He said, for instance, that he was yet to understand why the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, was heading the administration’s economic team.
Olusemore said though Osinbajo’s pedigree as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), is not in doubt, there are experts and technocrats who are properly trained in the dynamics of the economy to head the team or be part of it.
“Putting the right people in the right places to drive economic policies is one sure way to pull the economy out of recession,” the expert told The Nation.
He pointed out, for instance, that at the level of policy, the Treasury Single Account (TSA) under which all revenue receipts and payments are made into a central pool in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should be reviewed in a way that allows the idle funds to be invested in public works, such as health and other infrastructure, such as power, roads, and railways.
TSA is a public accounting system using a single account, or a set of linked accounts by government to ensure all revenue receipts and payments are done through a Consolidated Revenue Account (CRA) at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The idea was to ensure adequate monitoring of government revenue receipts and expenditures and block leakages, as no Ministry, Department, and Agency (MDA) is allowed to keep any operational bank account.
But Olusemore argued that rather than keep the money idle, the government should invest it in public works to galvanise other sectors, particularly the real sector, which is the economic growth engine.
The expert also noted that the government was giving undue focus on the fight against corruption at the detriment of other issues plaguing the economy and Nigerians.
The economist called for policy consistency, pointing out, that “we don’t know the government’s policy direction in the manufacturing sector.”
While insisting that “there must be a clear-cut policy on manufacturing,” Olusemore said manufacturers should be encouraged with tax incentives and access to Foreign Exchange (forex), while also subsidising their power consumption rates.
Reminded that the CBN recently announced a 60 per cent special forex allocation window for manufacturers, Olusemore said though it was a welcome development, the issue of implementation remains critical, as most manufacturers were not getting access to the special forex window.
He said another sure way to get the economy back on track was for the government to manage its expenditure properly.
According to him, the time had come for the government to walk the talk by reducing recurrent expenditure and investing more in capital expenditure.