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Release funds to stimulate economy – Group tells Buhari

By BusinessNews Staff on September 26, 2015

The Centre for Social Justice on Thursday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to release more funds for investment in capital projects in order to stimulate economic activities and reverse the decline in the growth rate of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

The group, in a statement issued in Abuja by its Lead Director, Mr. Eze Onyekpere, called on the President not to overlook the warning of the Central Bank of Nigeria that the economy could fall into recession by next year if proactive steps were not taken by the government to revive it.

The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had shortly after the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, noted that the economy had remained fragile owing to various factors.

For instance, he said the country’s GDP growth rate recorded a slow growth in the second quarter of this year, making it the second consecutive quarter of less-than-expected performance in the current fiscal year.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the real GDP grew by 2.35 per cent in the second quarter of 2015, a significant decrease when compared with the 3.96 per cent and 6.54 per cent in the preceding quarter and corresponding period of 2014, respectively.

Real GDP growth is projected by the NBS to stabilise at 2.63 per cent this year, compared with the 6.22 per cent recorded in 2014.

Onyekpere said in the statement entitled: ‘Before it is too late: The time to act is now’, that there was a need for relevant authorities to take immediate and urgent steps and not to wait until the economy finally slipped into recession before acting.

Accordingly, he called on Buhari to immediately appoint ministers, especially that responsible for finance and economic management, and to constitute the Economic Management Team of the Federal Government.

He also called for the unveiling of the economic agenda of the Buhari administration, stating that “public and private stakeholders cannot continue groping in the dark and imagining the content of the government’s economic agenda.”

The unveiling of a holistic framework, he added, had become a matter of urgent national importance.

Onyekpere said, “The CSJ urges the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other relevant authorities to take immediate and urgent steps, and not to wait until the economy finally slips into recession before acting.

“There is a need to create synergy between the fiscal and monetary policies, unveil the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper 2016-2019 as required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and open up public dialogue on macroeconomic policies for the medium term. The MTEF should have been ready by the end of June 2015; but it is better late than never.”

[Punch]

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