Areas Tinubu should prioritise

There are four areas that Tinubu should urgently attend to: (1) Falling naira exchange rate principally caused by increasing trade deficit occasioned by our unhealthy love for imported goods. Our leaders are almost exclusively to blame for this for in 2022 alone, our import bill was over N11 trillion against only N6 trillion for export. […]

There are four areas that Tinubu should urgently attend to:

(1) Falling naira exchange rate principally caused by increasing trade deficit occasioned by our unhealthy love for imported goods. Our leaders are almost exclusively to blame for this for in 2022 alone, our import bill was over N11 trillion against only N6 trillion for export. Tinubu should strive to turn our economy into a trade surplus within 12 months if our naira is to become strong. Let him aim to reverse the situation within his first term i.e. export to double the import bill in the next four years. One benefit from that would be an increase in job opportunities, especially for our teeming youths.

(2) the second area is our frighteningly rising debt. What is worrying is that most of the debt is the bad type that is not the type that generates revenue. In fact, some of the debt is used to service existing debt – the very worst type. Henceforth the only debt Tinubu should incur should generate enough revenue to more than pay back the debt. That is the only way to strengthen the economy. What this means is that Tinubu should aim to operate only surplus budgets throughout his tenure.

(3) The third area is the judicious use of resources. The best way to do that is to fully allow the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) to perform its statutory functions. This way we would reduce the over-pricing of goods and services currently at over 4 or 5 times the market prices.

(4) The fourth area to pay attention to is the actualisation of the laudable policy of replacing oil and gas as sources of forex with agriculture and solid minerals. Both GEJ and Buhari throughout their tenures were only paying lip service to the policy which would create huge job opportunities, strengthen the naira and facilitate the export surplus and budget surplus policies. Admittedly, these are tall order all doable because where there is a will, there is always a way.

 

Sabo Sodangi can be reached via [email protected]