A recent report from the World Bank indicated that the Nigerian economy has sunk into an all-time low in the history of the country. What that means is that if sound fiscal and monetary policies are not urgently deployed, the country may sink further into the doldrums.
This gloomy picture is part of a report contained in the global bank’s Development Updates on Nigeria. The report further stated that the current inflation level would push over more than seven million Nigerians into poverty by the end of 2022.
Nigeria’s present economic downturn is adversely affecting people’s lives in many ways. It has created inflation, unemployment and poverty. Now, there is greater uncertainty about the future. Though Nigeria’s economy is not immune from the present global recession, the country’s present challenges are largely caused by the failure of leadership. The accumulative consequences of the failure of the country’s leadership in the preceding decades is what we are suffering from now. So we just have to do things right, if we must get out of this quagmire.
A recently released foreign trade report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that Nigeria extended its negative trade balance in the first half of 2021, as its trade deficit surged to N5.81 trillion in the period. The report showed that Nigeria exported total merchandise valued at N7.99 trillion in the period under review as opposed to a total import value of N13.8 trillion, indicating a negative trade balance of minus N5.81 trillion between January and June 2021.
Therefore, one of the measures that must be taken urgently is to move Nigeria from its present status of being consumption to production based economy. Inadequate production of goods and services to satisfy local demands has encouraged unnecessary importation of goods and services. Nigeria’s government at various levels must urgently try to overcome its inability to support a full private sector driven economy targeted at improving local production and export.
Public sector wastages and unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks must be eschewed; rather an enabling environment for innovation, higher productivity, job creation and economic growth centered on a greater private sector participation must be encouraged. Government must make concerted efforts towards industrialization and transforming the economy to production based with support for small businesses which are the engine of economic prosperity.
