In an age full of amoral individuals who shape their views to suit the most profitable perspectives, the late economist, industrialist and columnist Henry Olujimi Boyo stands out for the searing honesty of his arguments on Nigeria’s economic development and the passion with which he delivered them.
Boyo was a prominent member of a select group of Nigerians who started speaking on economic issues that were becoming increasingly important with the return of civilian rule in 1999. These individuals were often private citizens, but had both the experience and the expertise to speak with authority on the structural and systemic challenges that were preventing the country from attaining its vaunted potential.
In making informed economic commentary his forte, Boyo was undertaking a critically-important task. For too long, this area had been dominated by academics whose love for jargon had made them inaccessible to the majority of Nigerians. Boyo, in contrast, sought to make his arguments as clear as possible.
His thesis was simple: Nigeria’s monetary framework was so contradictory and dysfunctional that it had become a hugely counterproductive drag on economic development. This argument was hinged on a fundamental issue, namely the country’s handling of its dollar revenues, and the consequences it had for inflation, price stability, foreign exchange rates and the cost of funds.
The higher inflation rates were, the lesser the purchasing power of citizens became; the higher the cost of borrowing, the more difficult it was for manufacturers to stay in business; the more artificial foreign exchange rates were, the less likely that increased export earnings would positively impact the economy.
Boyo argued these points with a passion that was distinguished by close reference to the latest statistics, the repeated use of down-to-earth examples, and a marked lack of political partisanship. As far as he was concerned, the issues were clear and the failure of the nation’s successive economic managers to properly apprehend them was unforgivable.
He continually warned that increased dollar revenue was not an end in itself, and urged a more flexible system of distributing the nation’s foreign earnings, including the payment of allocations to states in dollars in order to reduce the inevitable pressure on the naira after the disbursement of such allocations.
He kept pointing out that the country’s staggeringly high interest rates were wiping out any advantages that could be derived from its high population, its relatively mild climate, its strategic geographical position, and its geopolitical preeminence in Africa.
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In a nation notorious for double-speak, and on a subject distinguished by incomprehensibility, Boyo was the quintessential straight-talker. His queries demonstrate this: “So, how come from 2011-2013, when we had 10 times the income we had about 10-15 years ago, why are we poorer?” “If the banks pay 14 per cent to borrow from the CBN, at what rate would they lend to their customers?” “… how does a market woman work out the tenancy of giving her money free to the banks and then borrowing it back at excruciating cost?”
Henry Boyo’s independence of thought is the logical consequence of a life characterised by hard work and legitimate achievement. He was born in Warri, in present-day Delta State, on February 9, 1948. He went to Igbobi College Lagos and Dulwich College, London.
He was also at the University of London between 1968 and 1973, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, and went on to get a Master’s degree in the same subject from the City University of London in 1974.
He worked with A.J. Seward, a company in the Unilever Group, where he rose to become Plant Coordinator. He then went into private business, specialising mainly in logistics support to companies in the foods, beverages and personal-care sector.
Unusually for a full-time businessman, he also served as a columnist on several of Nigeria’s best-known papers, and his mix of perceptive insight, radical perspectives and ox-goring bluntness won him many admirers.May his soul rest in peace.
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