SAN FRANCISCO, February 13, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, has enjoined Nigerians to brace up for more economic challenges, stressing that the downturn should be seen as a sacrifice needed to move the nation forward.
Director-General of the association, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, who disclosed this in Lagos, stressed that falling oil prices was not a good omen for the country as it will lead to inflation.
He consequently called on government to let Nigerians know the implications of the decline in oil prices and how it hopes to mitigate its negative impacts, warning that the country is prone to serious economic crisis if there are no concrete plans to deal with the situation.
Oshinowo said the Federal Government should not return to the regime of paying fuel subsidies to petroleum marketers, saying subsidy is no longer sustainable.
While urging the government to embrace the privatisation policy to strengthen the economy, he advised government to proceed with the sale of ailing refineries, having recorded successes with the power and telecoms sectors privatisation.
He further tasked the authorities to refrain from making policies that would further constrain the ease of doing business in the country and emphasise long-term and well thought out policies that will give hope to the citizens.
Oshinowo specifically advocated policies that would ensure that the private sector has unhindered access to the foreign exchange market.
According to him, “We are looking for policy options that will ensure unfettered access to foreign exchange by the private sector, not policies that will further constrain the narrow fiscal space.
“After assessing government’s current policy options, one can conclude that we are not on the right track. Given the situation of things, we can’t expect tangible and meaningful outcomes now, but we should be able to have hope in terms of policy options such that if there is no respite in the short-term, we can long for respite in the medium-term and long-term.”
Oshinowo, who advocated concrete plans to show economic diversification from the over-dependence on crude oil revenue, said, “We want policy options that will show clearly that in the next two years, we will start seeing improvement in our infrastructure, in our road and rail networks.
“We are looking for policy options that will be consistent and ensure that government means business in terms of diversification of this economy away from outright dependence on revenue from the sale of crude oil.”
