The Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN)and the Ministry of Finance have been called upon as a matter of urgency to execute a comprehensive review of the economy with the view of upping the purchasing power parity of Nigerians.
The Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria(ISAN)which made the call in a statement said there is obvious need for the two bodies to use the instrumentality of the monetary and fiscal rates to stem the ravaging hunger and privation in the land.
ISAN declared this via its National Co-ordinator, Dr Anthony Omojola maintaining that their advise is that the monetary and fiscal authorities should emulate other nation’s across the World by introducing palliatives such as un-banning of certain vital food imports temporarily, grant tariff reliefs to certain industries and reducing taxes for some sectors.
According to him FG would be deceiving itself if it fails to acknowledge the economic poverty ravaging Nigeria across the board; arising from the war in Europe, devastating insurgency and insecurity in Nigeria.
He said the situation was worsened by food crisis, education crisis, the fuel crisis, debt crisis and the massive on-going theft in the oil and gas sector that have ensured that the country missed the global windfall for oil and gas producers.
As he said OPEC have improved its quota thrice since the Russia-Ukraine war but we are unable to benefit, yet we have debts to pay.
ISAN maintains that “FG should reduce corruption in the system…..There are duplication of charges and taxes. certain sectors of the economy are being over taxed. Those sectors should be helped.
“FG have to un-ban those food products like wheat, corn etc that are essential so that there maybe food adequacy. Bread for instance is going out of reach of mass of Nigerians as a result of wheat shortages. But the fear by government is obviously that imports may negatively effect our exchange rate and further de-value the Naira.
“That is why we are saying there should be a comprehensive review of the economy so that we can ably weigh the needed changes and their impacts on the overall economy. CBN should reflate the economy”, he said.
Omojola contended that the central bank should go beyond sharing palliatives since the impacts of the one they executed after Covid-19 is suspect and may not have gone round and that palliatives under-taken by politicians are always restricted to party members.
Adding that they are not in the know whether those who enjoyed the palliatives have been able to pay back to the government bank.
The ISAN National Co-ordinator stressed that the harsh economy is affecting quoted companies, leading to the trend where some of the coys are leaving the stock exchange in order to ensure their survival.
According to him no body should blame those de-listing as the economy currently very harsh on operators of the capital market, saying that the FG should intervene as a matter of urgency
