London Enterprise Ambassador and Economic Strategist for ECOWAS, Professor Ken Ife, addressed President Bola Tinubu’s plans to boost Nigeria’s foreign exchange, which was discussed at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group.
In an ARISE NEWS interview on Wednesday, Ife stated, “The projection of a one trillion dollar economy by 2026 and the possibility that we can actually punch to three trillion in 10 years is realistic but the paths are what we have to discuss. And I can see light at the end of the tunnel because on the other hand, the president has now unleashed measures that will unlock liquidity in the system. Without liquidity, you cannot actually go anywhere.
“That is the real bomb that he dropped. First he never mentioned the state of emergency on Forex. But all the measures that he took are hallmarks of the state of emergency on Liquidity.”
At the event, the President of the Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, addressed NNPC to get up to their game and increase petroleum supply from 1.3 heading out to 1.78 bpd. The Professor suggested stretching expenditures due to the dead weight of dead refineries through downsizing and moving staff to modular refineries.
At the event, the president also spoke on two presidential executive orders that essentially called for unblocking restrictions on dollars and held resources as well as encouraging flow of dollars into the economy. The professor stated that the world bank loan would aid in assisting the boosting of the economy by backing up the policies.
“Taking the budget support is actually good because one, it is a concessionary loan, so it’s very close to zero percent compared to 9% on the securitized twenty-four Trillion or even 20% if we are paying back the Central Bank of Nigeria for the ways and means. That money is very cheap and it is in currency which means we can have some of that liquidating some of the outstanding debt and some of that will go to refinancing and maintaining our payment under the dollar obligated loans. And of course some of them will be available fr central bank to put into defending the Naira.”
He went further to state that the debt situation would have been worse if Nigeria had lost the P&ID; then coupling that would and insufficient funds in the national reserve would run down the nation.
More concerns and doubts have been built due to the failure of the floating of the Naira and inability to meet up with the petroleum production quota.
“In 2014, Nigeria’s GDP rose to 575 billion dollars which was close to the 600 billion target of vision 2020. And we were 21 in the world, 1 step away from being the 20th which was the target. What happened? As soon as the oil price dropped and the supply dropped, and also the receivables dropped, from 3.2 billion a month to 1 billion, all the negative things started happening.
“GDP is measured in dollars so if our currency goes down by all these measures, they would be helping the GDP. “
Glamour Adah
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