Former President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba SAN, on Tuesday, expressed displeasure with the current state of Nigeria’s economy, warning that the present recession may continue until 2020, if President Muhammadu Buhari fails review some of his policies.
Addressing journalists in Lagos, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria admonished the Federal Government to develop a coherent fiscal, trade and monetary policy.
He advised the President to set up an economic team comprising of experts and technocrats, who will help him rescue the country out of recession.
Listing measures that could get the country out of its current challenges, Agbakoba said there is an immediate need for “a Presidential Proclamation at the National Assembly, switching from austerity to growth policy. The Federal Government needs to spend more to boost growth.”
According to the former NBA President, the Federal Government should return the Treasury Single Account, TSA, to commercial banks and create a new supervisory agency to monitor them, while the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, should focus its attention on formulating monetary policies.
He said, “Give Treasury Single Account back to the banks at single digit rates and supervise the banks; I recommend a lending base of 5 per cent.
“Limit the CBN to monetary policy and take away banking supervision to new prudential regulatory authority and banking ethics to new financial conduct authority.
‘If banks focus on lending and not trading, money will flood the system for productive value.
“We must spend our way out of recession
“When you go to the hospital and the doctor says you’re anaemic, only one thing is done – transfusion. So, how can the government present an austerity programme?
“The government must be clear as to what policy it wants to pursue. There is only one way out of recession and it is massive bouncing. You have to bounce the economy.
“Niger Delta is crying for money, South-East is crying for money, we all know that South-West is crying for money, so, you have public works to spend money on.
“You will be surprised if there’s a situation where Julius Berger and co are given contracts to build roads and you say for every contract, you must have 10 per cent labourers, you will find that the economy will slowly revive. But unfortunately, I am not seeing those things and if it doesn’t happen, we will be looking at a very long term, because a recession cycle is three years, but great economics, like the former Minister of Greece, can make it; we can recover by Q2 2017 but that requires applying the best possible method.”
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