Egwim: Allocating Borrowed Funds To Projects That Show Significant Returns Is Important In Managing Fiscal Deficits

Chief Economist of Coronation Merchant Bank, Chinwe Egwim has said that allocating funds that have been borrowed, to projects that show significant return is an important step that the government needs to take to show their commitment to managing fiscal deficits.

Egwim, in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, also suggested that more attention should be given to the boosting of non-oil sectors.

“Physical discipline is important. I would also say the revenue target is ambitious and we are all excited to see this but the implementation will power, we hope that it is there. Boosting non-oil revenue is another aspect because most of these ratios are affected by the revenue figures.

“I would also say that allocating funds that they have borrowed to projects that actually show significant return is also important”

Egwim also spoke on the three priorities that the government must focus on for revenue generation looking at the presented budget.

“Top three priorities will be, one, economic diversification. I know that is like an anthem right now but the government needs to look into economic diversification. There are sectors like agriculture and I am speaking from the perspective of the national account which I believe should be rebased and refreshed.

“But agriculture and not just smallholder farming but looking through that value chain, there is so much potential that is still untapped in that sector, there is mining and specific segments within manufacturing as well and of course the orange economy, that is the creative industry. I think the government needs to look into that when it comes to diversification.

“The next one will be infrastructure development. Energy is important. It’s a lubricant, something that is going to fuel other sectors. When you look at the national account, non-oil accounts for about 90% just from a statistical perspective while the oil sector accounts for 10%. But the oil sector indirectly accounts for 40% of other sectors.

“So, it will be good to see the energy, power sector improve because if we really want that industrial takeoff that we keep talking about, we can’t do it without power. We need to also look into ports management, improving what’s going on there because if we are talking about improving exports and trade, we would not be doing ourselves justice if we have issues in that area.

“The last one is human capital development. We haven’t really received new figures, with regards to the unemployment rate. What we have in the public domain is still 33% which a handful of people believe is slightly higher than that. It’s interesting because there are so many job vacancies that people can’t fill because they don’t have the skill set.

“So, human capital development is very important and bringing it down, I would say that there should be some focus on the blue-collar economy. I think that segment has been ignored for too long. That’s where you have your plumbers, welders, carpenters. So, I think we should be looking at how to improve output from that segment.”

She further called for a revision of curricula of schools in a way it would reflect economic realities.

“Revising the curriculum of schools is very important. Most of them are outdated and do not reflect economic realities. These are the areas I think they should look into o help with driving the objectives of the renewed hope project”

 Chioma Kalu

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