Let’s discuss the Nigeria double digits inflation as it affects our choices on a daily basis.
Looking for Business Opportunities Ahead of the Economic Fallout
NSE reviews major equities market indices for 2019
From Discover on Google https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/01/nse-reviews-major-equities-market-indices-for-2019/
HOW CAN NIGERIANS LEVERAGE ON THE BASICS 1?
No doubt about it,it is a known fact that our challenges in this part of the world is quite enormous and scary with no single form of solutions in sight to douse the effect of the anomalies and abnormalities that were created and moulded by maladministration rooted in visionless leadership our dear nation is blessed with.
What do I mean by “leveraging on the basics”?
The basics in this write up simply connotes some of the basic achievements been experienced in the day-to -day realities an average man on the streets is experiencing in terms of low cost of procurring some certain goods recently.
It is on record that some areas of residence in Lagos State are enjoying good electricity supply of which my area of residence have been enjoying hours of uninterrupted power supply recently.
This improvement in Electricity supply is out of the blue and it is an achievement that no one ever expected in this part of the world since Nigeria has a nation has been plaqued with por electricity supply for ages.
This improvement is an indication that if Nigeria as a nation can look inward and think about what could be done to address the issue of poor electricity supply practically and proactively,the issue of poor electricity supply would end up becoming a thing of the past.
This can be achieved when the approach of Nigerian government about providing good infrastructure becomes a priority and approaches about developing basic amenities that will have a chain value addition on the quality of living of Nigerians are put in place.
In another vein,the downward trend that the cost of cooking gas is experiencing is amazing going by the fact that the last purchase of 12.5kg of gas I bought was at #3000 from#3500 I use to buy it.And it has gone down to #2800 recently.
With thease two realities mentioned above,one could noticed that it is not difficult for the economy of our dear nation to improve if only we are ready to put what is right in place.
If the cost of every basic necessities of life keeps going down gradually,poverty will surely fizzle out and our dear nation will be known for a viable economy.
A good and a viable economy is neither by magic nor it is gotten by space science, it is resident in the accumulation and investment of ideas and methodology that are potent enough in empowering the masses through the provision of basic amenities that could drive the economy and made it viable.
If electricity supply improves,more cottage industry will spring up and more people will become employed leading to a kind of competition in the production of goods and services that will end up making the cost of such goods and services to go down gradually.
A good electricity supply drives the economy to be competitive and it is when the economy becomes competitive that the cost of production will do down with prices of goods and services having a downward trend that is natural.
This becomes achievable when all the parameters necessary to make the economy of the country are looked into one after the other.
One of the basic parameters needed to be looked into is the provision of infrastructure and basic amenities that has a direct impact and influence on the living standards of average Nigerians.
Some of these basic amenities will become a driving force that will help in developing small and medium scale enterprises that has been known to be the foundation of every developed economy all over the world.
It is of essence for leaders in this part of the world to think deeply and develop blueprint about how the Nigerian economy can become viable in a short period of time.
Having a viable economy in Nigeria is the only solution to some of the vices and social evil that seems to be overlwhelming the Nigerian society.It will contribute extensively to douse the ever increasing insecurity challenges been experienced across the length and breadth of the Nigerian society.
If a larger percentage of our teeming youth are catered for through social welfare schemes with many been gainfully employed,the waves of insecurity will experience a natural death.
All these can be achieved when the economic parameter that will drive the achievemnet of viable economy is provided and it all rallies around the provision of basic amenities.
Let’s continue to leverage on the basics.
The kind of improvement observed in electricity supply can also be extended to other sectors of the economy gradually.
Once other sectors started picking up by being efficient and effective,the Nigerian economy will have a hope of becoming better gradually.
©Mlstcommunications 2019.
How Nigeria’s annual inflation rate declined to the lowest in a year.
(Bloomberg) — Nigeria’s annual inflation rate declined to the lowest in a year in July as food prices increased slower than in the previous month.
Consumer prices rose 11.1% from a year earlier compared with 11.2% in June, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said Friday in a report published on its Twitter account. The median of five economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was 11.2%. Prices rose 1% in the month.
Key Insights
While the food sub-index, which accounts for about half of the inflation basket, rose 13.4% in July compared with 13.6% in June, this week’s directive from President Muhammadu Buhari to stop dollar supplies for food imports could push up prices if shortages due to clashes between herders and farmers worsen.Governor Godwin Emefiele kept the key rate unchanged last month to fight inflation that’s been above the target range of 6% to 9% for more than four years. With an economy that’s still struggling to recover from a 2016 contraction, the central bank said lenders will no longer receive interest on deposits exceeding 2 billion naira ($5.5 million) and ordered them to increase their loan-to-deposit ratios in an effort to boost credit growth.
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No more foreign exchange for food importation in Nigeria.
ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has told the central bank to stop providing funding for food imports, his spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday, a move that has raised questions about the bank’s independence.
Nigeria, which has Africa’s biggest economy, is the continent’s top oil producer and relies on crude sales for around 90% of it foreign exchange. Low oil prices led to a recession in 2016 from which the country emerged two years ago.
Since Buhari first took office in 2015, Nigeria’s central bank has presided over policies aimed at stimulating growth in the agricultural sector to reduce dependence on oil. Those policies included a 2015 ban on access to foreign exchange for 41 items that the bank felt could be produced in Nigeria.
“President Muhammadu Buhari … disclosed that he has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop providing foreign exchange for importation of food into the country,” Tuesday’s statement said.
“Don’t give a cent to anybody to import food into the country,” Buhari said, according to the statement, which said that the call was in line with efforts to bring about a “steady improvement in agricultural production, and attainment of full food security”.
“The foreign reserve will be conserved and utilised strictly for diversification of the economy, and not for encouraging more dependence on foreign food import bills.”
The latest move comes only weeks after Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele in July said the bank would ban access to foreign exchange to import milk.
Tuesday’s statement prompted many observers to point to the central bank’s status as an independent body.
“The central bank act of 2007 makes it clear that the bank is independent. It is not supposed to be taking direct instructions from politicians,” said Kingsley Moghalu, who served as deputy central bank governor from 2009 to 2014.
“The trajectory in this administration is that we have seen a very clear tendency for the president to direct people. Increasingly Nigeria’s institutions have lost independence,” said Moghalu, who was a contender in February’s presidential election.
Bismarck Rewane, an economist and the head of Lagos-based consultancy Financial Derivatives, also said the bank was supposed to be independent.
A central bank spokesman did not immediately respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment.
Buhari has been a vocal supporter of such restrictions and one of his first moves after his re-election in February was to reappoint the central bank governor.
Rewane said a curb on foreign exchange for food imports could backfire after Buhari last month signed up to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). That deal seeks to create a continent-wide free trade zone where tariffs on most goods would be eliminated.
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“Our collective goal is to implement initiatives that will lift our citizens out of poverty through mass employment and social safety nets.–Buhari.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, July 25, said that he will work on the recommendations of experts from the private sector to bring about lasting solutions to Nigeria’s many socio-economic problems.
President Buhari said this during the presidential policy retreat attended by technocrats who proffered solutions to issues bordering on security and economy, Channels TV reports.
He, however, said that to achieve the desired national change, state governors must wake up to their responsibilities and work with the federal government.
Buhari said:
“Although most of the proposals were targeted at the federal government, I want to remind the state governors to do their part, especially in the areas of education and health care.
“Our collective goal is to implement initiatives that will lift our citizens out of poverty through mass employment and social safety nets.
“This is achievable with the right fundamentals in place. We must all keep in mind that a successful economy is one where prosperity is felt by the majority.”
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that the deputy president of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, had said Nigerians deserve a better deal under the Next Level agenda of the current administration.
A statement by his media office in Abuja on Tuesday, July 23, said the deputy president of the Senate disclosed this at the 2019 summit of Association of Professional Bodies in Nigeria (APBN).
SOURCE:
Nigeria is the 53rd state on the continent to append its signature to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement
The Federal Government said it has identified 22 products from none oil sector from which the country can earn $30,000 billion and create 500,000 export oriented jobs annually.
This is coming after President Muhammadu Buhari signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement at the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union on AfCFTA and the First Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union AU and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Niamey, Niger Republic.
Nigeria is the 53rd state on the continent to append its signature to the document.
Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Segun Awolowo, disclosed this to State House Correspondents at the weekend after briefing President Buhari.
The NEPC boss who briefed the president on the zero oil implementation plan after he was asked for an update said: “I briefed him on the setting up of national committee on export promotion by National Economic Council (NEC), chaired by the governor of Jigawa State and what we are working in order to diversify the economy.
“What we hope to achieve is to raise more revenue for Nigeria from other sources. You know 90 percent of our revenue is from oil and we cannot survive. Even though oil prices are rising a bit because of Iran, there is problem there. But we should not rest on our oars because, those days of $140 per barrel is gone forever. So we have to look inwards and produce more.
“The zero oil plan is about raising production and productivity, we identified 22 sectors where we can earn foreign exchange apart from oil. We are hoping that in the next 10-15 years we will be able to raise $150 billion from sources outside oil. That is what we are working on and we are galvanizing the whole states behind us in other to raise production and productivity. We are working with the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to achieve this. You know the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN just announced an initiative on five of our products and giving them low interest rates to farm and raise production.”
Awolowo said the sectors include cocoa, cotton, cement, leather, cashew, Sesame, Shea butter, palm oil, fertilizer, petrochemicals, rubber among others.
“Cocoa is an immediate win for us because, its been our number one none oil revenue making. But we are on less than 300,000 metric tons, Ghana is heading to 900,000, Cote d’ Ivoire almost two million metric. So, how do we compete? Meanwhile if you see the landmass in Nigeria you can imagine what we can do. Another sector is Shea nut, cashew is another breadwinner for us, so let’s raise production, let’s give our farmers, plantations low interest loan so that they can raise production for us. We are also looking at value addition for all because that is the way you create jobs, we cannot continue to sell the raw materials.”
Awolowo who said he presented to President Buhari some tomatoes and Bell peppers from a green house in Benin and Casanovas, cassava chips a cottage industry is producing in Idu Industrial Estate that is already being exported to Germany, added:
“That is the future for Nigeria. We are about to enter into African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement, which is the biggest in the world, we don’t want to be a dumping ground and that is why Mr. President refused signing until we are ready. We must be competitive, we must produce more, and we must help our manufacturers get into this market.”
On packaging and substandard products, the NEPC boss said:
“Our products are no longer substandard and we are exporting all over West Africa and Inter-land Africa. We have a few challenges here and there but I always tell people, the journey of processing raw materials to producing goods is not going to happen over night. We are going to have rejects but we will not succumb to them. Our packaging is improving and we are even packaging and labeling in different languages so we can get into those markets, particularly when Africa opens up for us now.”
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How Buhari inaugurates board of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission(RMAFC).
The quest of the 36 state governments for a new revenue formula may soon become a reality as President Muhammadu Buhari is set to inaugurate the board of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, on Thursday (today).
The RMAFC is the body responsible for preparing the formula for sharing revenues among the three tiers of government in the country.
The body is also responsible for fixing the remuneration of political office holders as well as monitoring the revenues accruing to the federation account from revenue-generating agencies.
Our correspondent learnt that 30 new members of the commission would be inaugurated at the State House, Abuja. The commission is made up of 37 members with each state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory represented by one commissioner.
The inauguration will end more than three years of the revenue body without substantive leadership. It will also end the inability of the body to make policy decisions for lack of quorum given that the commission had progressively diminished in the number of commissioners.
Although Buhari had in July 2016 announced the reappointment of Mr Elias Mbam as the Chairman of the commission, his name was not sent to the National Assembly until recently when it became necessary to fill the depleted body.
Mbam left the commission in November 2015 after the end of his first five-year tenure.
Some of the major tasks facing the commission as it is inaugurated include giving the nation a new revenue formula which constitutionally is supposed to be reviewed every five years.
The commission may also feel the pressure to review the remunerations of political office holders in the country which many Nigerians think are outsized and do not reflect the reality in an economy that has been facing declining revenues.
Although the commission had completed work on both new revenue formula and remuneration package for political office holders, the processes were not concluded because the documents were not presented to the National Assembly by the President.
It is not clear whether the commission would press for completion of the processes or opt for fresh reviews. However, opting for fresh reviews may be more logical given the passage of three years since the works were completed as well as the preponderance of new membership of the commission.
State governors had recently hinged the payment of N30, 000 minimum wage on the review of the revenue formula in a way that would give the states more substantial resources.
Revenue sharing formula which has remained a controversial subject in Nigeria even before independence in 1960 refers to the proportion of resources accruing to the federation that goes to each component of the federation.
It also defines the proportion of resources that must be retained in the territories where they are generated as well as what goes to the agencies of government that collect the revenues on behalf of the federation.
Currently, 13 per cent of mineral resources known as derivation go to oil and solid minerals producing states. Four per cent of the money collected by Nigeria Customs Services is given to the organisation as the cost of collection.
Similarly, the Federal Inland Revenue Services receives seven per cent of the money it collected to cater for the cost of collection.
After these deductions, both mineral and non-mineral revenues are pulled together into the federation account and shared among the three tiers of government.
At present, the Federal Government gets 52.68 per cent. The state governments get 26.72 per cent while the Local Government Councils get 20.6 per cent.
From Value Added Tax, four per cent cost of collection is assigned to FIRS.
After these deductions, the net revenue is shared among the three tiers of government in the proportion of the Federal Government, 15 per cent; state governments, 50 per cent, and Local Government Councils, 35 per cent.
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“Since I have decided to come here, you have to accept what I have said here. And please, if you do not want to hear the truth, never invite me,”–Sanusi
Muhammad Sanusi II, Emir of Kano says Nigeria is on the verge of bankruptcy following “unfavourable economic policies.”
We are heading to bankruptcy… what happened is that the federal government pays petroleum subsidy, pays electricity tariff subsidy, and if there is rise in interest rates, f
The revered traditional ruler made the comment on Tuesday, June 25 at a workshop organised by the office of the accountant-general of the federation at Government House, Kano.
He advised President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to take a different stance, saying for 30 years, successive governments “have had this project called petroleum subsidy.”
According to The Cable, he said the time had come to stop subsidy so as to save the nation’s economy.
We are heading to bankruptcy… what happened is that the federal government pays petroleum subsidy, pays electricity tariff subsidy, and if there is rise in interest rates, federal government pays,” he said.
“What is more life threatening than subsidy that we have to sacrifice education, health sector and infrastructure for us to have cheap petroleum.
“If truly President Buhari is fighting poverty, he should remove the risk on the national financial sector and stop the subsidy regime which is fraudulent,” he added.
Emir Sanusi asked President Buhari to tell Nigerians the fact about the economic situation and also act quickly on this.
“Since I have decided to come here, you have to accept what I have said here. And please, if you do not want to hear the truth, never invite me,” he said.
He continued:
“So, let us talk about the state of public finance in Nigeria. We have a number of very difficult decisions that we must make, and we should face the reality. His Excellency, the president, said in his inaugural speech that his government would like to lift 100 million people out of poverty, it was a speech that was well received not only in this country, but worldwide.
“The number of people living with poverty in Nigeria is frightening. By 2050, 85 percent of those living in extreme poverty in the world will be from the African continent. And Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo will take the lead.
“Two days ago, I read that the percentage of government revenue going to debt services has risen to 70 percent. These numbers are not lying. They are public numbers. I read them in the newspapers. When you are spending 70 percent of your revenue on debt servicing, then you are managing 30 percent.
“And then, you continue subsidizing petroleum products; and spending N1.5 trillion per annum on petroleum subsidy! And then we are subsidizing electricity tariff. And maybe, you have to borrow from the capital market or the Central Bank of Nigeria to service the shortfall in the electricity tariff, where is the money to pay salaries, where is the money for education, where other government projects?”
Meanwhile, the Kano Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Corruption Commission has invited some officials of Kano Emirate Council and other individuals to explain why the council paid their foreign medical bills.
The commission’s action is despite a court order barring it from investigating the emirate.
The anti-corruption commission had recently re-opened probe on the emirate finances, which it suspended two years ago, as crisis between Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and the emir worsens.
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What do you need to build a flourishing business venture?
THE DISSAPPOINTING REALITY OF BEING EDUCATED IN NIGERIA.
The trend of present realities in the Nigerian society always forced someone to have a deep breathe considering series of societal values that have gone down the drain.
Nowadays,it takes a lot of boldness and thinking for anyone to really convince the Millenia about the necessity of education in their journey to greatness.
In a situation whereby the society we live in abhors and praised to high heaven characters who are uneducated accompanied with the fact that it is some of these uneducated personalities that determines what is happening in the society makes it more frustrating.
It happened sometimes ago that one of the popular Road Transport Workers Chairman throw a jab at the Nigeria Education system claiming that the work of an ‘agbero’ is also a professional job like every other professional job being studied in every other Nigerian schools is a confirmation of the evil that has bedevilled the entirety of the Nigerian educational system.
No doubt about it,a monetized society can never appreciate any good thing that quality education can offer.
A society that believed in extreme accumulation of wealth without any traceable source of income will end up like the Nigerian society whereby no one gives a damn about the beauty of working hard to achieve a feat.
The evil of a negative society has eaten deep into every fabrics of the Nigerian existence to the point that promotion and appraisal in many corporate entity is no longer by merit but it has been subjected to dirty approaches that might be beyond what a sane human mind can comprehend.
This makes someone to keep asking series of questions that boils down to the fate of those who are educated when the economy of the entire nation has been sold of to Asian Tigers that has little or no respect to academic achievements.
Not that some of the educated can be shielded from blame due to the fact that many educated ones can not stand their feet to defend what they studied in school because it has gotten to the point that Masters degree holders in this part of the world have become a show of disgrace.
It is appalling and mind-blowing that this is happening in our time but it will be more disheartening for the coming generation because someone could easily observed that the crop of young minds around gives no damn about being serious with their academic achievements.
Can we blame them?
No!
It will be a sin to blame them when some of their uncles and aunties that finished from one higher institution or the other are busy wandering around looking for what to do.The lucky ones among them are busy teaching in the classroom whereby they are being given paenuts as take home pay.
A situation whereby the shout of skills acquisition is on a top gear is quite insulting whereby a MSc holders are being seen frying chin-chin and puff puff makes it more discouraging due to the fact that the contributions of this form of endeavour is too low to add value to the person involved and the GDP of the Nigerian economy.
If at all skills acquisition is the alternative for unemployment,many of the skills being portrayed as a source of employment is too low for what a nation that is bothered about the development of its economy and citizenry should be dashing out as a source of livelihood in Nigeria.
Hence,with all these,it is impossible for any sane mind to rely on whatever is being thrown out as a benefit of education considering the rigours that young Nigerian pass through while in school.
The uncertainty of dreams and visions being fulfilled through the accumulation of academic certification is a mirage in Nigeria now. It is another means of becoming perpetually miserable for the rest of someone’s life.
The reality of the Nigerian society is discouraging.
In conclusion, what defines aberration is when the society of the educated is being governed by the uneducated. It will trigger confusion and a dampened spirit will be the order of the day.
What a pity.
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Featured Image sent by Olalekan–Adedeji– Stylomedia
©mlstcommunications 2019
Nigeria’s economy slipping, says World Bank
The World Bank has said that the Nigerian economy has been slipping since 1995 and this continued till 2018.
The bank, in its latest report on the regional economy titled, ‘Africa’s Pulse’, released the taxonomy of growth performance in sub-Saharan Africa, which focused on the macroeconomic and financial features that led to growth resilience on the continent.
According to the bank, the taxonomy is used to help identify the factors that are correlated with success or failure in economic growth performance in sub-Saharan Africa, with emphasis on macroeconomic and financial variables.
The analysis, it said, involved a series of macroeconomic variables for 44 sub-Saharan African countries from 1995 to 2018.
The key elements that determined the positions of each of the 44 sub-Saharan economies in the taxonomy, the World Bank said, included the level of income per capita of the countries; structural transformation, as captured by sectoral value-added share and sectoral employment share; and capital flows.
Others are level and composition of public sector indebtedness, as captured by the general government gross debt and its currency composition, and the outstanding external public debt.
The last of the indicators has to do with governance vis-a-vis government effectiveness, regulatory quality, control of corruption, voice and accountability, political stability, and absence of violence and rule of law.
According to the World Bank, the taxonomy compares the average annual GDP growth rates during 1995–2008 and 2015–2018 against predetermined thresholds.
It also categorised growth performance into five groups: falling behind, slipping, stuck in the middle, improved, and established. The five groups were further reclassified into three groups: Top tercile, middle tercile and bottom tercile.
The Bretton Wood institution said, “If a country’s economic performance declined from 1995–2008 to 2015–18, the country is categorised in the bottom tercile, which includes ‘falling behind’ and ‘slipping.’ If a country’s growth rate remained invariant over time, between 3.5 and 5.4 per cent in both periods, it is categorised in the middle tercile (or stuck in the middle). If a country’s economic performance improved from 1995–2008 to 2015–18, with the growth of more than 5.4 per cent per year, the country is categorised in the top tercile, which includes the ‘improved’ and ‘established’ groups.”
Based on the above classification, the Nigerian economy was categorised alongside 18 other sub-Saharan African economies as slipping having recorded declined economic performance between 1995 and 2018.
The World Bank said, “The bottom tercile consists of 19 countries: Angola, Burundi, Botswana, the Republic of Congo, the Comoros , Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Lesotho, Mauritania, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Eswatini, Chad, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These countries did not show any progress in their economic performance from 1995–2008 to 2015–18. For instance, their median economic growth rate decelerated, from 5.4 per cent per year in 1995–2008 to 1.2 per cent per year in 2015–18.”
The bottom performing economies, according to the World Bank, produce almost 60 per cent of the region’s total GDP, emphasising that the three largest countries in the region—Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola—and many commodity exporters are in this group.
Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania made the top tercile.
The middle tercile countries are Benin, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, Niger, Sudan, São Tomé and Príncipe, Togo, and Uganda.
The World Bank also cut its growth forecast for sub-Saharan Africa this year to 2.8 per cent from an initial 3.3 per cent.
The commodity price slump of 2015 cut short a decade of rapid growth for the region, and the bank said growth would take longer to recover as a decline in industrial production and a trade dispute between China and the United States take their toll.
The bank’s 2019 forecast means economic growth will lag population growth for the fourth year in a row and it will remain stuck below three per cent, which it slipped to in 2015.
“The slower-than-expected overall growth reflects ongoing global uncertainty, but increasingly comes from domestic macroeconomic instability including poorly managed debt, inflation and deficits,” the bank said.
The Bretton Wood institution equally cut Nigeria’s growth forecast by 0.1 per cent.
It said, “Growth in Nigeria is projected to rise from 1.9 per cent in 2018 to 2.1 per cent in 2019 (0.1 percentage point lower than last October’s forecast).
“This modest expansion reflects stagnant oil production, as regulatory uncertainty limits investment in the oil sector, while non-oil economic activity is held back by high inflation, policy distortions, and infrastructure constraints.
“Growth is projected to rise slightly to 2.2 per cent in 2020 and reach 2.4 per cent in 2021, as improving financing conditions help boost investment.
“In Nigeria, although the manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs remained above the neutral 50-point mark—which denotes expansion—they fell further in February, due to weaker rises in output and new sales orders across firms.
“Household consumption in Nigeria has remained subdued, while multiple exchange rates, foreign exchange restrictions, low private sector credit growth, and infrastructure constraints have continued to weigh on private investment.”
The Chief Economist for Africa at the bank, Albert Zeufack, said the region could boost annual growth by about nearly two percentage points if it harnessed Information Technology more effectively.
“This is a game-changer for Africa,” he added.
However, the spokesperson for the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Isaac Okorafor, said the CBN under the current governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, had shown so much ingenuity in managing the economy.
“You know the crisis that we have faced in the past three years. The bank has shown ingenuity in managing the situation and ensuring that everything is stable.”
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Nigeria, U.S. Trade Volume Hits $35bn
MLST ARTICLES:ECONOMIC RECESSION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS–REVISED EDITION.
The word “recession” recently forced itself on every Nigerian and it became part of our vocabulary. No single day can pass us bye without our daily tabloids being filled with it boldly written or printed. As popular as this word is, the meaning of this word might be strange but the implications and effect can be seen by every Nigeria.
WHAT IS RECESSION?
According to the definition copied on http://www.economichelp.org, a recession means a fall in gross domestic product GDP or national output.
1.Economic Recession Definition
Economic recession is a period of general economic decline and is typically accompanied by a drop in the stock market, an increase in unemployment, and a decline in the housing market. Generally, a recession is less severe than a depression. The blame for a recession generally falls on the federal leadership, often either the president himself, the head of the Federal Reserve, or the entire administration.
Factors that Cause Recessions
High interest rates are a cause of recession because they limit liquidity, or the amount of money available to invest.
Another factor is increased inflation. Inflation refers to a general rise in the prices of goods and services over a period of time. As inflation increases, the percentage of goods and services that can be purchased with the same amount of money decreases.
Reduced consumer confidence is another factor that can cause a recession. If consumers believe the economy is bad, they are less likely to spend money. Consumer confidence is psychological but can have a real impact on any economy.
Reduced real wages, another factor, refers to wages that have been adjusted for inflation. Falling real wages means that a worker’s paycheck is not keeping up with inflation. The worker might be making the same amount of money, but his purchasing power has been reduced.
Ref:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-economic-recession-definition-causes-effects.html:
2.Definition: An economic recession is a significant decline in economic activity, real GPD, real income, employment, industrial production, and sales following a decline in the aggregate demand for at least two quarters.
What Does Economic Recession Mean?
What is the definition of economic recession? When the government imposes higher interest rates, the cost of money rises, thus lowering consumer and government borrowing. Consumer confidence is declining, thus lowering the demand for goods and services. Furthermore, the financing of business operation becomes harder through borrowing, and firms have to lay off their workforce, thus increasing unemployment.
Normally, the recession follows the downward phase of an economy, with stagnation or decline in the investment, reduction of income, and increase of unemployment. From the downward phase the economy either enters a recession, or it resumes to the expansion phase.
Let’s look at an example.
Example
The subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 is one of the major economic recessions after the crash of 1929. The bursting of the real estate bubble in the summer of 2006 originally led to the bankruptcy of a large number of floating rate mortgages, and then moved to the market of corporate subordinated bonds issued to finance securitized mortgages. The outcome was a wave of collapses, mergers, and nationalizations after September 2008.
Through securitization, commercial and savings banks were moving their mortgage liabilities to the balance sheets of intermediary financial institutions. For instance, a mortgage of $1,200 was replaced by an equivalent amount provided by the intermediary financial institution and the bank was using the money to issue new mortgages, which in turn were also moved to the balance sheet of the intermediary financial institution and so on. In that way, the liabilities to equity ratio increased exponentially to 50 over 1 as opposed to 9 over 1, which is the norm for the banks.
Furthermore, the intermediary financial institutions were financing corporate bonds issued by investment banks that managed to convince the bond rating agencies to rate with AAA and AA corporate subordinated bonds that had securitized loans as collateral. To protect against bond default, institutional investors bought credit default swaps (CDs) issued by the AIG insurance company.
The consequences of the subprime crisis are mainly attributed to the size of the mortgage loans market, $12 trillion, out of which 75% were scrutinized. In August 2008, about 10% of the mortgage loans were past due or auctioned. Therefore, the crisis was immediately moved to the financial markets of other countries, causing a dramatic decline of 40 to 70%.
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- In economics, a recessionis a business cyclecontraction which results in a general slowdown in economic activity.[1][2] Macroeconomic indicators such as GDP (gross domestic product), investment spending, capacity utilization, household income, business profits, and inflation fall, while bankruptcies and the unemployment rate rise. In the United Kingdom, it is defined as a negative economic growth for two consecutive quarters.[3][4]
Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various events, such as a financial crisis, an external trade shock, an adverse supply shock or the bursting of an economic bubble. Governments usually respond to recessions by adopting expansionary macroeconomic policies, such as increasing money supply, increasing government spending and decreasing taxation.
In a 1974 The New York Times article, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Julius Shiskin suggested several rules of thumb for defining a recession, one of which was two down consecutive quarters of GDP.[5] In time, the other rules of thumb were forgotten. Some economists prefer a definition of a 1.5-2 percentage points rise in unemployment within 12 months.[6]
In the United States, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is generally seen as the authority for dating US recessions. The NBER defines an economic recession as: “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale–retail sales.”[7] Almost universally, academics, economists, policy makers, and businesses defer to the determination by the NBER for the precise dating of a recession’s onset and end.
In the United Kingdom, recessions are generally defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, as measured by the seasonal adjusted quarter-on-quarter figures for real GDP.[3][4] The exact same recession definition applies for all member states of the European Union. [8]
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession
4. Recession
A temporary downturn in economic activity, usually indicated by two consecutive quarters of a falling GDP. The officialNBER definition of recession (which is used to date U.S. recessions) is: A recession is a significant decline ineconomic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, realincome, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economyreaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is inan expansion. Expansion is the normal state of the economy; most recessions are brief and they have been rare inrecent decades. The start and end dates are determined by the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the NationalBureau of Economic Research (NBER). It is a popular misconception that a recession is indicated simply by twoconsecutive quarters of declining GDP, which is true for most, but not all recession. NBER uses monthly data to datethe start and ending months of recessions.
Copyright © 2012, Campbell R. Harvey. All Rights Reserved.
Recession
A prolonged economic retraction. While there is no technical definition of a recession, they are conventionally definedby two or more consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Recessions are marked by declines in productivityand investment and high unemployment. See also: Depression.
Farlex Financial Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All Rights Reserved
recession
An extended decline in general business activity. The National Bureau of Economic Research formally defines arecession as three consecutive quarters of falling real gross domestic product. A recession affects different securitiesin different ways. For example, holders of high-quality bonds stand to benefit because inflation and interest rates maydecline. Conversely, stockholders of manufacturing firms will probably see company profits and dividends drop.
Case Study After nearly a year of falling commodity prices, rising unemployment, increasing personal and corporatebankruptcies, falling stock prices, and declining public confidence, the National Bureau of Economic Research made itofficial and on November 26, 2001, declared a recession. The announcement wasn’t a surprise to hundreds ofthousands of people who had lost their jobs and an even greater number of investors who had experienced substantiallosses in the stock market. The bureau’s Business Cycle Dating Committee of six academic economists determinedthe recession commenced in March 2001, when economic activity stopped growing. Although many economists usedeclines in gross domestic product to define a recession, the NBER Dating Committee examined employment,industrial production, manufacturing and trade sales, and personal income. The country’s last previous recessionlasted eight months and ended in March 1991. The subsequent ten-year period of uninterrupted growth betweenMarch 1991 and March 2001 was the longest in America’s history.
Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today’s Investor by David L. Scott. Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Recession.
Broadly defined, a recession is a downturn in a nation’s economic activity. The consequences typically include increasedunemployment, decreased consumer and business spending, and declining stock prices.
Recessions are typically shorter than the periods of economic expansion that they follow, but they can be quite severe even ifbrief. Recovery is slower from some recessions than from others.
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which tracks recessions, describes the low point of a recession as atrough between two peaks, the points at which a recession began and ended — all three of which can be identified only inretrospect.
The Conference Board, a business research group, considers three consecutive monthly drops in its Index of LeadingEconomic Indicators a sign of decline and potential recession up to 18 months in the future. The Board’s record in predictingrecessions is uneven, having correctly anticipated some but expected others that never materialized.
Dictionary of Financial Terms. Copyright © 2008 Lightbulb Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Ref:
https://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Economic+recession
- A recession is a significant decline in economic activity that goes on for more than a few months. It is visible in industrial production, employment, real income and wholesale-retail trade. The technical indicatorof a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth as measured by a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), although the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)does not necessarily need to see this occur to call a recession.
BREAKING DOWN ‘Recession’
Recession is a normal, albeit unpleasant, part of the business cycle. However, one-time crisis events can often trigger the onset of a recession. The global recession of 2009 brought a great amount of attention to the risky investment strategies used by large financial institutions, along with the global nature of the financial system. As a result of the wide-spread global recession, the economies of virtually all the world’s developed and developing nations suffered significant setbacks. Numerous government policies were implemented to help prevent a similar future financial crisis as a result. Typically, a recession lasts from six to 18 months, and interest rates usually fall during these months to stimulate the economy.
Ref:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp
WHAT ARE RECESSION PREDICTORS AND INDICATORS.
Recession Predictors and Indicators
There is no reliable way to predict how and when a recession will occur. But, according to many economists, there are some generally accepted predictors that. when they occur together, may point to a possible recession. First, asset prices will begin to decline. This includes home prices and other financial assets like stocks. Another possible predictor is unemployment; generally speaking, a three-month change in the unemployment rate and initial jobless claims will point to a recession. An inverted yield curve is also another predictor. When long-term yields fall below the short term ones (the 10-year vs. the 3-month Treasury securities), a recession will occur. Conversely, a positively sloped curve (in the opposite direction) will signal inflationary growth. Since 1970, all the recessions that have taken place in the United States up through 2017 have followed an inverted yield curve.
Aside from two consecutive quarters of GDP decline, economists assess several metrics to determine whether a recession is imminent or already taking place. These indicators are divided into two categories: leading indicators and lagging indicators. Leading indicators materialize before a recession is officially declared. Perhaps the most common leading indicator is contraction in the stock market. Declines in broad stock indices, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index, often appear several months before a recession takes shape. This was the case in 2007 in the United States, when the market began declining in August, four months ahead of the official recession in December 2007.
Lagging indicators of a recession include the unemployment rate. Though the Great Recession began in December 2007, the unemployment rate still indicated full employment — a rate of 5 percent or lower — four months later. The unemployment rate began declining in May 2008 and did not recover until several months after the recession ended in June 2009.
Ref:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp
HISTORY OF RECESSION
Economists say there have been 33 recession in the United States since 1854 through to 2017. Since 1980, there have been four periods of negative economic growth that were considered recessions.
- July 1981-November 1982: This recession affected most of the developed world between the late 1970s to the early 1980s. During this time, the Federal Reserve wanted to rein in inflation and, as a result, began to tighten its monetary policy. Effects from the energy crisis in 1979 (the output of crude oil dropped in the wake of the Iranian Revolution, causing an uptick in prices) were also felt throughout the economy. American unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent in November 1982 and GDP declined 2.7 percent.
- July 1990-March 1991: This downturn was caused by a combination of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 (which caused a shock to oil prices), weaker consumer and business confidence, and declining unemployment. It was estimated that the economy lost about 1.6 million jobs during this period — most of which were in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
- March 2001-November 2001: This downturn was a result of Y2K, when dot.com companies were enjoying relatively high interest from investors. This boom led to a bust, with stock prices plummeting along with the values of many high-tech companies. But at the time, the Fed continued to raise interest rates, making it more difficult for companies to obtain (cheaper) credit to stay afloat. The 9/11 attacks also took place during this period, which worsened the crisis. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) closed for four days and U.S. indices dropped to some of their lowest levels following the attacks.
- December 2007-June 2009: The housing bubble burst in the U.S. because of the subprime mortgage crisis. Oil and food prices still rose, despite a drop in housing-related assets. Many of the country’s large financial institutions failed or collapsed including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and AIG. The nation’s car industry also experienced a fallout and stock markets saw significant drops. The government responded by introducing a $787 billion stimulus package to fuel economic growth.
Ref:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp
Global[edit]
Main article: Global recession
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “Global recessions seem to occur over a cycle lasting between eight and 10 years.”[48] The IMF takes many factors into account when defining a global recession. Until April 2009, IMF several times communicated to the press, that a global annual real GDP growth of 3.0 percent or less in their view was “…equivalent to a global recession.”[49][50] By this measure, six periods since 1970 qualify: 1974–1975,[51] 1980–1983,[51] 1990–1993,[51][52] 1998,[51][52] 2001–2002,[51][52] and 2008–2009.[53] During what IMF in April 2002 termed the past three global recessions of the last three decades, global per capita output growth was zero or negative, and IMF argued—at that time—that because of the opposite being found for 2001, the economic state in this year by itself did not qualify as a global recession.[48]
In April 2009, IMF had changed their Global recession definition to:
- A decline in annual per‑capita real World GDP (purchasing power parity weighted), backed up by a decline or worsening for one or more of the seven other global macroeconomic indicators: Industrial production, trade, capital flows, oil consumption, unemployment rate, per‑capita investment, and per‑capita consumption.[54][55]
By this new definition, a total of four global recessions took place since World War II: 1975, 1982, 1991 and 2009. All of them only lasted one year, although the third would have lasted three years (1991–93) if IMF as criteria had used the normal exchange rate weighted per‑capita real World GDP rather than the purchase power parity weighted per‑capita real World GDP.[54][55]
Australia[edit]
The worst recession Australia has ever suffered happened in the beginning of the 1930s. As a result of late 1920s profit issues in agriculture and cutbacks, 1931-1932 saw Australia’s biggest recession in its entire history. It fared better than other nations, that underwent depressions, but their poor economic states influenced Australia’s as well, that depended on them for export, as well as foreign investments. The nation also benefited from bigger productivity in manufacturing, facilitated by trade protection, which also helped with feeling the effects less.
Due to a credit squeeze, the economy had gone into a brief recession in 1961 Australia was facing a rising level of inflation in 1973, caused partially by the oil crisis happening in that same year, which brought inflation at a 13% increase. Economic recession hit by the middle of the year 1974, with no change in policy enacted by the government as a measure to counter the economic situation of the country. Consequently, the unemployment level rose and the trade deficit increased significantly.[56]
Another recession – the most recent one to date – came in the 1990s, at the beginning of the decade. It was the result of a major stock collapse in 1987, in October,[57] referred to now as Black Monday. Although the collapse was larger than the one in 1929, the global economy recovered quickly, but North America still suffered a decline in lumbering savings and loans, which led to a crisis. The recession wasn’t limited to only America, but it also affected partnering nations, such as Australia. The unemployment level increased to 10.8%, employment declined by 3.4% and the GDP also decreased as much as 1.7%. Inflation, however, was successfully reduced.
United Kingdom[edit]
Main article: List of recessions in the United Kingdom
The most recent recession to affect the United Kingdom was the late-2000s recession.
United States[edit]
Main article: List of recessions in the United States
According to economists, since 1854, the U.S. has encountered 32 cycles of expansions and contractions, with an average of 17 months of contraction and 38 months of expansion.[7] However, since 1980 there have been only eight periods of negative economic growth over one fiscal quarter or more,[58] and four periods considered recessions:
- July 1981 – November 1982: 15 months
- July 1990 – March 1991: 8 months
- March 2001 – November 2001: 8 months
- December 2007 – June 2009: 18 months[59][60]
For the past three recessions, the NBER decision has approximately conformed with the definition involving two consecutive quarters of decline. While the 2001 recession did not involve two consecutive quarters of decline, it was preceded by two quarters of alternating decline and weak growth.[58]
Late 2000s[edit]
Main article: Great Recession
Official economic data shows that a substantial number of nations were in recession as of early 2009. The US entered a recession at the end of 2007,[61] and 2008 saw many other nations follow suit. The US recession of 2007 ended in June 2009[62] as the nation entered the current economic recovery.
United States[edit]
The United States housing market correction (a possible consequence of United States housing bubble) and subprime mortgage crisis significantly contributed to a recession.
The 2007–2009 recession saw private consumption fall for the first time in nearly 20 years. This indicates the depth and severity of the current recession. With consumer confidence so low, recovery takes a long time. Consumers in the U.S. have been hard hit by the current recession, with the value of their houses dropping and their pension savings decimated on the stock market. Not only have consumers watched their wealth being eroded – they are now fearing for their jobs as unemployment rises.[63]
U.S. employers shed 63,000 jobs in February 2008,[64] the most in five years. Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on 6 April 2008 that “There is more than a 50 percent chance the United States could go into recession.”[65] On 1 October, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that an additional 156,000 jobs had been lost in September. On 29 April 2008, Moody’s declared that nine US states were in a recession. In November 2008, employers eliminated 533,000 jobs, the largest single month loss in 34 years.[66] For 2008, an estimated 2.6 million U.S. jobs were eliminated.[67]
The unemployment rate in the US grew to 8.5 percent in March 2009, and there were 5.1 million job losses until March 2009 since the recession began in December 2007.[68] That was about five million more people unemployed compared to just a year prior,[69] which was the largest annual jump in the number of unemployed persons since the 1940s.[70]
Although the US Economy grew in the first quarter by 1%,[71][72] by June 2008 some analysts stated that due to a protracted credit crisis and “…rampant inflation in commodities such as oil, food, and steel,” the country was nonetheless in a recession.[73] The third quarter of 2008 brought on a GDP retraction of 0.5%[74] the biggest decline since 2001. The 6.4% decline in spending during Q3 on non-durable goods, like clothing and food, was the largest since 1950.[75]
A 17 November 2008 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia based on the survey of 51 forecasters, suggested that the recession started in April 2008 and would last 14 months.[76] They project real GDP declining at an annual rate of 2.9% in the fourth quarter and 1.1% in the first quarter of 2009. These forecasts represent significant downward revisions from the forecasts of three months ago.
A 1 December 2008, report from the National Bureau of Economic Research stated that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007 (when economic activity peaked), based on a number of measures including job losses, declines in personal income, and declines in real GDP.[77] By July 2009 a growing number of economists believed that the recession may have ended.[78][79] The National Bureau of Economic Research announced on 20 September 2010 that the 2008/2009 recession ended in June 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II.[80]
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RECESSION AND DEPRESSION
A depression is a deep and long-lasting recession. While no specific criteria exist to declare a depression, unique features of the last U.S. depression — the Great Depression of the 1930s — included a GDP decline in excess of 10 percent and an unemployment rate that briefly touched 25 percent. Simply, a depression is a severe decline that lasts for many years. There have been 33 recessions in the United States since 1854, but there has been only one depression since then.
Ref:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp
What Are the Long-Term Impacts of a Recession?
Even though recessions are portrayed as short-term events, there are longer term consequences that come from a period of economic downturn. Higher unemployment can mean that affected people and families may be forced to put off saving for or pursuing educational opportunities, buying a home, or just saving for a rainy day. The quality of life and standard of living for most people start to decline as well, which can affect the stability of families, and their health and overall well-being. Businesses also start to feel the pinch; as consumers freeze their spending, small business profits start to decline and large companies may put off investing in research and development (R&D
Ref:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp
CHARACTERISTICS/IMPLICATIONS OF ECONOMIC RECESSION
Economic recession is usually characterized by:
1.High unemployment
2.Falling average income
3.Increased inequality
4.Rising bond yield
5.Higher government borrowing
6.Fall in tax revenue
7.Budget deficit
8.Output loss
9.Impact on workers
The impact of a recession depends on how long it lasts and the depth of the fall in output.
The fall in output simply denotes and implies fall in productivity which might make basic commodities needed by the populace to be scarce. The scarcity will give room for the forces of demand and supply to take over. Lower output triggers lower supply of goods and this will lead to increase in demand which will end up increasing the price of commodity in the market.
The recent economic reality witnessed across the length and breadth of Nigeria is shocking and strange, unimaginable and unfathomable by many Nigerians due to the high expectations that followed the landmark victory Nigeria masses handed over to the government of the day by rejecting former administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The electoral manifesto and promises of the APC government were so compelling and attractive that many Nigerians believed that the plight of average man on the street will experience a paradigm shift for better.
The bunch and bulk of this economic woes, hardship and downturn can never be blamed on this administration because it has started creeping and crawling in gradually at the end of the last administration which was mired with unreasonable degree of ineptness, ineptitude, corruption and mediocrity with stories of non-performance being relayed on a daily basis from our corridor of power in Aso Rock and in all the thirty-six states including Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.
Now, Nigeria economy is in recession with rising cost of goods and services accompanied with high indices of unemployment soaring high on a daily basis, and the daily news of retrenchment aired on media platforms makes the heart of many heavy.
The impart and impact of this low ebbed economy has resulted in a forceful paradigm shift of every facet of our existence not for satisfaction but for survival.
No doubt about it, Nigerians can be described to be wasteful in their approach to manage every resources at the disposal but the present economic realities has been able to curtail and checkmate many forms of profligacies Nigerians are known for although many are still shying away and struggling to belief the adverse impact of this recession on every facet of our existence.
Frugal management of scarce available resources with parsimonious utilization and maximization of scarce resources targeted towards increasing national productivity output seems to be the only way out to salvage the implications of this economic recession. This is the only way by which our national, corporate and personal existence can be preserved without it being dented and affected by the impact of recession.
The present-day government needs an urgent drive towards economic approach and policies that will serve as a palliative to cushion the effect of this negative economic realities.
Since our reliance on crude oil is no longer beneficial and attractive, there is an urgent need to diversify our economy through the diversification of every resources inherent in all sectors in order to increase our productivity output in a short term.
Agricultural, solid minerals, human resources and other important sectors like educational and health sectors should be developed without leaving behind infrastructural development.
There is an urgent need to develop our power sector,5000mega watts is not enough to revive our economy from recession at all.
Ministry of power, works and housing should do more to maintain this 5000 megawatts with plan and processes that will increase power output to 30000 megawatts in short term.
This will easily revive the manufacturing sector with the development of agricultural sector in pari pasu so that agricultural output can fill the gap of dearth of basic raw material bedeviling our manufacturing sector.
The importation of local and international cutting-edge technology should also be tapped into in order to make our manufacturing sector vibrant.
Effort should be made in enhancing the production and manufacturing of finished products that have quality that can stand at par or even superseded what is obtainable in the international market. This will increase the volume of our foreign exchange earnings that has plum due to low crude oil price.
The development of our educational sector should be at the front burner of our developmental policies, there should be a paradigm shift of our educational curriculum towards introducing and exposing our students to the practical and entrepreneurial aspect of their chosen discipline from elementary education to university education.
Health sectors, tourism and information technology are some of the sectors that will turn our economy to a destination for foreign investors with adequate investment to improve security because all these will become achievable in a peaceful environment where there Is safety of life and property.
With all these, all hands must be on deck to channel every effort at our disposal to make Nigeria the economic hub of AFRICA.
GOD BLESS NIGERIA.
Tag:
#Recession#
#Economy#
I WILL SIGN WHEN THE CONTENT IS SATISFACTORY—Yemi Osinbajo.—(3 MINUTES READ).
Against the backdrop of rumour engulfing the entire media which was traced to a recent publication by a particular media house submitting that Lai Mohammed rendered a statement that signing of the 2017 is not yet sure:
“We dont know who will sign 2017 budget”—Lai Mohammed.
MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND CULTURE—ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED.
The spokesperson to the acting President,Laolu Akande has released a statement in the media to counter the earlier report stressing that his principal would sign the budget into law in due course once the content therein is satisfactory.
“Just so we are clear:when the time comes, everything is set, and he is satisfied,Ag.President Yemi Osinbajo will assent to 2017 Budget”.
With this Nigerians can now breathe a sigh of relief about the state of affairs of the nation concerning the submission and passage of 2017 Budget into law by the acting President Yemi Osinbajo in the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari who embarked on medical check up abroad.
The delay in the passage of the budget to the presidency was due to the fact the budget was reviewed last week with the addition of 143 Billion Naira increment by the National Assembly last week to what was sent by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Tag:#Budget#Economy#Yemiosibajo#Laimohammed#
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U.S. productivity increases in second quarter; labor costs soft — Moneycontrol Business News
U.S. worker productivity rose more than expected in the second quarter amid an increase in hours, but the trend remained weak, suggesting that robust economic growth could remain elusive.
via U.S. productivity increases in second quarter; labor costs soft — Moneycontrol Business News
NIGERIA INFLATION DROPPED BY 0.02 PERCENT.–(2 MINUTES READ).
For the third consecutive month,the Nigeria Inflation rate dropped to 17.24 percent in April from 17.26 percent in March.The Statistics was released by the National Bureau of Statistics NBS on Tuesday.
The drop observed in the inflation rate for the third consecutive month simply connotes that the Consumer Price Index which measures inflation ebbed from 17.26percent in March 2017 to 17.24 percent in April 2017.
In economics,inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time while a Consumer Price Index simply CPI rmeasures changes in the price level of market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households.The CPI is a statistical estimate constructed using the samples of prices of a sample of representative items whose prices are collected periodically.
With this 0.02 percent drop,the high food and non-food prices in the country have started going down,although a two- digit inflation rate that Nigeria economy is struggling to be healthy.
Ref:
dailypost.org
en.wikipedia.org
Tag:
#Business News#
#economy#
#inflation#
I WILL SIGN WHEN THE CONTENT IS SATISFACTORY—Yemi Osinbajo.—(3 MINUTES READ).
Against the backdrop of rumour engulfing the entire media which was traced to a recent publication by a particular media house submitting that Lai Mohammed rendered a statement that signing of the 2017 is not yet sure:
“We dont know who will sign 2017 budget”—Lai Mohammed.
MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND CULTURE—ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED.
The spokesperson to the acting President,Laolu Akande has released a statement in the media to counter the earlier report stressing that his principal would sign the budget into law in due course once the content therein is satisfactory.
“Just so we are clear:when the time comes, everything is set, and he is satisfied,Ag.President Yemi Osinbajo will assent to 2017 Budget”.
With this Nigerians can now breathe a sigh of relief about the state of affairs of the nation concerning the submission and passage of 2017 Budget into law by the acting President Yemi Osinbajo in the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari who embarked on medical check up abroad.
The delay in the passage of the budget to the presidency was due to the fact the budget was reviewed last week with the addition of 143 Billion Naira increment by the National Assembly last week to what was sent by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Tag:#Budget#Economy#Yemiosibajo#Laimohammed#
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Rice—Our cultural Inheritance. –(4 Minutes Read).
Some couples of days ago,sometimes last week,every tabloid and social media platforms were engulfed with the news of massive availability of rice from one of the eastern Nigeria States,precisely Ebonyi State coupled with the utterances that was traced to the state helmsman that there will be an all out ban and total destruction of imported rice in Ebonyi State.
As it is before,this generated a lot of comments,outrages and unending furore that center around differential opinion on this issue that boils down to a common single staple food that has been outside the reach of the common man since this present administration declared a different uncommon stand in their approach to the importation of rice.
No doubt about it,this administration has taken a firm stand that will encourage the local content initiatives that past administration has been clamoring about,which will launch Nigeria into the realm of prosperity since it will boost employment generation and foreign exchange reserve will jack up.
On the contrary,this administration failed in preparing for the negative effect of their economic policy that it is being witnessed in the form of skyrocketed prices of a bag of rice which has not been affordable by many Nigerian, although the high dollar to naira exchange rate contributed immensely to this upsurge in price.What is expected from the present day government is that palliatives that will cushion the effect of hike in the price of rice should have been put in place before the outright ban for waiver granted to rice importers is scrapped.
As the news about the massive availability and production of local rice becomes ripe and matured some few weeks ago,it is quite disappointing for this present administration to mouth that Nigeria as a nation will soon be exporting rice to enhance and boost foreign exchange earning.This can be described without any iota of doubt as a situation of misplaced priority by the government of the day.
Reason demand that the government of the day should be bothered about how the production and availability of rice can satisfy and meet up with our local and internal consumption demand.
Elementary economics about the principle of demand and supply hinges on the fact that when supply of a commodity is higher than the demand,price of such commodity will crash without any struggle.
At this moment in our national existence, as a nation finding solutions to many challenges pummeling the fabrics of our national existence,a sensitive,responsible and responsive government should fashion out ways by which the prices of common commodities in the market will be available and affordable to the common man.It defeats any form a reasoning for the government of the day to be bothered about boosting foreign exchange earnings when tour citizenry are being ravaged with famine and hunger.
The yearnings of every Nigerians on a daily basis is that the prices of rice should crash in no distance time since rice is one of the staple food commodity that has been entrenched as a culture in the Nigerian culture for so many decades.
It will be a disappointment for Nigerians if what they have been used to for forlorn years is taking away from them because of an economic policy that seems to be one-sided or lopsided.
The consumption of rice has found a solid foundation in our cultural values across the length and breadth of our country,it can be described as one of the unifying factors.It will tantamount to irresponsibility and wickedness for any government to take it away from us because it has become a heirloom that has been passed from one generation to another in Nigeria.Every decision and policies from the present day government must be marshaled to preserve this custom by all means because posterity might demand an explanation for it one day.
In conclusion,local production of rice and other staple foods massively is a welcome development and it must be maximized and optimized to tackle and banish unemployment,famine and hunger in our land.
A hungry man is an angry man.
Lets support the local content initiative that will empower our nation to feed her people.
God bless Nigeria.
Tag:#Rice#National#Heritage#
Ref:www.canva.com
www.Mlst.blog 