Economy
Experts Proffer Solutions for Nigeria’s Economic Recovery in Q2′
Some economists on Thursday said that unlocking Nigeria’s dead capital in residential real estate, agriculture and driving its export diversification agenda would catalyse the nation’s economic recovery.They spoke at a webinar organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) on the theme: “2021 Mid-Year Economic & Business Review and Outlook Webinar”.
Dr Andrew Nevin, Partner and Chief Economist, PwC, noted that Nigeria holds as much as $900 billion worth of dead capital in residential real estate and agricultural land with government’s abandoned property valued at N230 billion. Nevin added that the country’s housing deficit was pegged at seven million and needed 700,000 units of houses annually to bridge the deficit.The economist charged government to harness the power of the diaspora via remittances, drive export growth and diversification through services, build innovation hubs, industrial clusters and improve education to improve the lot of Nigerians.He added that growth at the subnational levels of the nation must be addressed to tackle the disparities.“In the view of Africa’s 40 per cent projected population growth chart and Lagos projected as the largest city in the world by 2100, Nigeria’s must find its own development path.“With Gross Fixed Capital formation at only 19 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, Nigeria needs significant Foreign Direct Investment to bridge infrastructure deficit key to diversification.” The exchange rate, fuel subsidy and power sector need total structural and policy reforms as they are largely distorted. There is also need to move the informal sector to the formal sector,” he said.Also, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader, PwC, noted that the pandemic had accelerated digital transformation and the need to invest in talent management.Oyedele said that foreign exchange liquidity, economic recovery in the second quarter of the year would drive monetary policy direction and financial market performance.He noted that rising debts and revenue challenges, coupled with the pandemic effect on economic growth would intensify government’s focus on tax compliance and revenue mobilisation.“CEOs are concerned about threats in the external environment such as challenges of policy and tax uncertainty, overregulation. amongst others.“Fifty-four per cent of the CEOs are also concerned about cyber security up significantly by 38 per cent from last year.“Now is the time for business leaders to drive growth from new possibilities, take action, transform and build forward better, and adopt leadership agenda to take on tomorrow,” he said.Mrs Toki Mabogunje, President, LCCI, projected fragile economic recovery for the second quarter amidst sluggish sectoral performances from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on businesses.Mabogunje anchored the projections on sustained oil prices, progress in vaccination and gradual implementation of reforms in oil sector.She, however, noted that factors such as lingering foreign exchange problems, absence to follow through on critical reforms and insecurity may hinder the projections.“The blend of fiscal and monetary policies is much needed for the expected economic recovery.“We must find ways to mitigate risks, highlight investments opportunities and how these opportunities can be leverage upon to improve the Nigerian economy,” she said. (NAN)
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) says it will henceforth issue Outline Business Case (OBC) Certificate of Compliance and the Full Business Case (FBC) Certificate of Compliance within seven days.This follows the charge by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the Director General of the Commission, Dr Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh “to accelerate investment in National Infrastructure through innovative mobilization of private-sector funding”.
President Tinubu also charged him to work assiduously to boost infrastructure development in Nigeria as part of the renewed hope agenda of the current administration.In view of the above, Dr Ewalefoh-led management team of the ICRC has streamlined the approval processes of the commission to issue its certificates of compliance within seven days. This will accelerate the turnaround time for approvals by the Commission.“In line with the charge of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and following his Renewed Hope Agenda, we have streamlined and updated our approval processes to issue either of the Outline Business Case Certificate of Compliance (OBC) and the Full Business Case Certificate of Compliance (FBC) to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that meet the requirements within seven days.“This is part of efforts by the current administration to accelerate infrastructure development, bridge the infrastructure gaps and stimulate the economy through investment of private sector funds in Public Private Partnership endeavours.“By streamlining our processes, the Commission is in no way foregoing any of its stringent approval steps or key requirements, therefore, only business cases that are viable, bankable, offer value for money and meet all other requirements will be approved.“The ICRC cannot do it alone, therefore I implore all chief executives of MDAs to match our momentum and align with this charge of Mr. President to accelerate Infrastructure development and ensure that PPP projects are not stalled at any point but delivered within record time.“The Commission is ready to partner and collaborate with all MDAs to actualize this,” he said.In a statement by Ifeanyi NwokoActing Head, Media and Publicity on Monday the ICRC DG in August rolled out a six-point policy direction which among others, focused on accelerating PPP processes, boosting inter-agency collaboration and ensuring innovative financing.The ICRC was established to regulate Public Private Partnership (PPP) endeavours of the Federal government aimed at addressing Nigeria’s physical infrastructure deficit which hampers economic development.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The federal government in the second quarter of 2024 generated a total of N1.56 trillion from Value Added Tax. This is a 9.11 percent increase from the N1.43 trillion in Q1 2024.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics report, local payments recorded were N792.
58 billion, foreign VAT payments were N395. 74 billion, while import VAT contributed N372. 95 billion in Q2 2024.“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, human health and social work activities recorded the highest growth rate with 98.44%, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing with 70.26%, and water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with 59.
75%,” NBS reported.“On the other hand, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods and services producing activities of households for own use had the lowest growth rate with 46.84%, followed by Real estate activities with 42.59%.
“In terms of sectoral contributions, the top three largest shares in Q2 2024 were
manufacturing with 11.78%; information and communication with 9.02%; and Mining and quarrying with 8.79%.
“Nevertheless, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use recorded the least share with 0.00%, followed by activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies with 0.01%; and Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with and real estate services 0.04% each.
“However, on a year-on-year basis, VAT collections in Q2 2024 increased by 99.82% from Q2 2023.”
Investors’ sustained interest in MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank, and FBN Holdings, among other key stocks, drove the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) market capitalisation to a gain of N270 billion or 0.48 per cent.
Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N55.708 trillion, closed at N55.
978 trillion.The All-Share Index also advanced by 0.
48 per cent, or 476 points, to settle at 98,592. 12, compared to 98,116.27 recorded on Thursday.As a result, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return rose to 31.87 per cent.
Market breadth closed positive with 38 gainers and 18 losers.
On the gainers table, ABC Transport, Eterna Plc, Julius Berger, and United Capital led by 10 per cent each to close at 77k, N19.
80, N110 and N15.95 per share respectively.Mecure followed closely with 9.94 per cent to close at N8.52 per share.
On the other hand, Union Dicon Salt led the losers’ table by 9.88 per cent to close at N7.30, UPL trailed by 8.97 per cent to close at N2.18 per share.
Custodian dropped 8.59 per cent to close at N11.70, Omatek lost 7.14 per cent to close at 65k and Axa Mansard declined by 6.85 per cent to close at N5.03 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 46 per cent.
A total of 477.44 million shares valued at N8.17 billion were exchanged in 9,529 deals, against 791.78 million shares valued at N15.13 billion exchanged in 9,059 deals posted in the previous session.
Veritas Kapital led the activity table in volume with 103.24 million shares valued at N125.59 million, while Oando led the table in value with 52.39 million shares worth N2.13 billion. (NAN)
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