Economy
Economist Tasks FG on Reforms to Ease Fuel Subsidy Removal
Renowned Economist, Dr. Muda Yusuf, has urged the Federal Government to address the social outcomes of its recent reforms, especially the inflationary pressure induced by the fuel subsidy removal.
Yusuf, also founder, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), said this in the CPPE Half Year Economic Review report in Lagos.
According to him, there is need for urgent measures that will mitigate the soaring cost of living and the escalating operating and production costs, especially for businesses.
He stated that the Nigerian economy was impacted by diverse global and domestic variables in the first half of the year.
Some of which, he said, included the Russian-Ukrainian war, the persistent monetary tightening in the advanced economies and a growing fragmentation of the global economy amid increasing anti-globalisation sentiments.
He noted that on the domestic front, major headwinds to growth were the naira redesign policy, dysfunctional foreign exchange policy and the political transition processes.
Others, Yusuf said, include weak recovery of oil production and the intractable challenge of insecurity in some parts of the country.
“The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth remained weak and fragile as it slowed to 2.31 per cent in the first quarter of 2023, from 3.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022.
“It is laudable that the President Bola Tinubu administration is charting a new and positive course for the economy which portends bright prospects for recovery and growth.
“Already, there are clear indications of elevated investors confidence, improvement in the government fiscal space, higher prospects of exchange rate stability in the near term, and positive expectations of better economic governance.
“Meanwhile, the Tinubu administration needs to promptly deploy measures to mitigate the current headwinds inflicted by the current reforms.
“The interventions should be a mix of direct interventions, tax incentives for low-income employees and small businesses, reduction in import duty on some critical intermediate products for key sectors of the economy, import duty concessions for the transportation, health, power and energy sectors.
“The improved fiscal space created by the reforms should make these mitigating measures feasible and they have to be implemented urgently in order to give the current reforms a human face,” he said.
Yusuf projected that inflationary pressures may intensify in the near term and the exchange rate may come under pressure in the short term as demand backlog exerts pressure on the official forex window.
He, however, stated that the pressure was expected to ease before the end of the year, paving way for an equilibrium exchange rate which would be more tolerable and sustainable.
Yusuf urged the Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) to put in place a sustainable intervention framework to moderate the volatility in the foreign exchange market.
He said with a better fiscal space, the outlook for lower fiscal deficit, moderation in the growth of public debt, reduction in debt service burden, and an improvement in the macroeconomic stability were very positive.
The economist explained that all of these would impact on economic growth prospects in the second half of the year. (NAN)
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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