Implement economic reforms in Q1 to save economy, NESG tells FG

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has urged the federal government to begin implementation of bills passed into law in the first quarter of 2022 before electioneering campaigns kick off. NESG, during its launch of the 2022 macroeconomic outlook themed: “The Last Mile: Reforms Towards Significant Improvement in National Economic Outcomes”, noted that with 2022 […]

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has urged the federal government to begin implementation of bills passed into law in the first quarter of 2022 before electioneering campaigns kick off.

NESG, during its launch of the 2022 macroeconomic outlook themed: “The Last Mile: Reforms Towards Significant Improvement in National Economic Outcomes”, noted that with 2022 being a pre-lection year, there was the likelihood of slow pace of decision-making, thus, implementing reform pronouncements became difficult.

The Chairman of (NESG), Asue Ighodalo, stated that with the economy grappling with multiple macroeconomic challenges, economic reforms, implantation of economic reforms in the oil and gas sector, as well as forex, would sustain the little growth experienced in 2021.  

“Election-related distractions will likely have the effect of amplifying the challenges experienced in 2021 if the government does not immediately move to stem the tide by implementing critical reforms. We believe that policies that directly impact the welfare, gainful employment and safety of our citizens and the performance, sustainability and job-creating potentials of our businesses, in the short term, must be at the fore of government policies and actions in 2022.”

He further said 2022 would likely come with its peculiarities of increased election spending and could motivate a tighter monetary policy stance to curb inflationary pressures and attention shifting from effective governance to outright politicking.

On his part, the CEO of the group, Laoye Jaiyeola, said the year presented opportunities to initialise crucial reforms, failure of which would lead to the challenges encountered in 2021.

While emphasising that the country needed to walk away from subsidising fuel consumption as 40 per cent of the population only consumed three per cent of the commodity, Jaiyeola called for the need for the country to have a clear foreign policy to instill confidence in investors by ensuring a transparent exchange rate policies.