Experts urge FG to grant education, health sectors tax holiday
Financial experts, economists and leaders of thought that gathered at the 2018 Vanguard Economic Discourseadvisethegovernment to grant the education and the health sectors tax holiday and further put the right policies mix that will align the nation’s economic growthandhumandevelopment performance on the same path.
According to Muda Yusuf, director-general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), this will help mitigate the imminent social crisis bewildering the sectors.
“We find a situation today where you have more private schools in many of the states than public schools. We are faced with a situation today where we have more private hospitals than the public hospitals, that goes to show the role that private hospitals are playing even in the social sector space,” Yusuf said.
“We should grant them complete tax holiday and all the input into the educational sector, either education material or laboratory materials; all this should come into the country free of import duty. So that the private sector may be able to complement the effort of the government in delivering quality human capital because we need human capital to drive the economy.”
At the events experts brainstorm on the theme “Human Developmentindexvseconomic Growth: Nigeria’s Policy Options.” were they also proffer appropriate policy mix needed to galvanise Nigeria’s human resources and economic growth.
Keynote speaker, Fola Adeola, reeled out the immediate problems fighting the economy and unravelled palliative measures that could put an end to the human development problem.
Speaking on the country’s current condition, Adeola said we have over 87 million Nigerians in extreme poverty.
Nigeria is irresponsibly procreating every minute, he said, noting that the act stands as a challenge to any the economic policy created by any government. Illiteracy, corruption, Crookedness, etc, are factors bedevilling government policies and human development index.
Erudite economist and former member of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Doyin Salami said the debate about economic growth and human development index is a stall debate as economic thinking had move long away from and move towards the notion of inclusive growth which will help bridge the gap between two indices.
“If we are going to develop we must record real inclusive growth because if Nigeria does not grow with at least double digit growth which must continue for at least a decade the social consequences are best imagine,” Salami told the audience.
Salami explained that private capital should be the way forward for a country suffering from capital insufficiency but the country have fooled its self into believing it’s the giant of Africa.
“Nigeria is capital deficient that the little money we have we are spending it wrongly. Imagine if we have legislative law which protect private investment or government regulations that encourage private investment and give them security for example don’t we think private money will build rail?” Salami said.
Other experts at the event such as Professor Pat Utomi, brainstorm on the theme, Human Development Index vs Economic Growth: Nigeria’s Policy Options. They proffer appropriate policy mix needed to galvanize Nigeria’s human resources and economic growth which came from the backdrop of the recent World Bank Group ranking of Nigeria 152 out of 157 countries on its first-ever Human Capital Index.
Similarly, a report by the Brookings Institution said Nigeria had overtaken India as the nation with the highest number of extremely poor people. The report showed that about 87 million Nigerians are in extreme poverty, with six Nigerians falling into extreme poverty every minute.
Furthermore, data from National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, showed that the number of unemployed Nigerians rose by 3.3 million or 19 per cent to 20.9 million in third quarter of 2018 (Q3’18) from 17.6 million in third quarter of 2017 (Q3’17). The need for the right mix of policies to align the nation’s economic and human development performance informs the theme of the Vanguard Economic Discourse.
Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation, International Energy Agency (IEA), says in its latest report that it expects “mixed picture” for global oil demand in 2019.
“Falling prices in Q4 18 helped consumers and there are signs that trade tensions might be easing. In many developing countries, lower international oil prices coincide with a weaker dollar as the likelihood of higher US interest rates fades for now,” the Paris-based IEA said.
“However, the mood music in the global economy is not very cheerful as Confidence is weakening in several major economies.”
IEA oil market report reveals in the short term, there is added uncertainty about oil demand due to the onset of the northern hemisphere winter season, with low temperatures seen in the past few days in many places.
“For now, we retain our view that demand growth in 2018 was 1.3 million bpd, and this year it will be slightly higher at 1.4 million bpd, mainly due to average prices being below year-ago levels.”
The IEA, which coordinates the energy policies of industrial nations, explains that refiners face a challenging year as processing capacity will increase by 2.6 million bpd, the biggest growth for four decades, while margins are already pressured by low gasoline cracks due to oversupply and weak demand.
“The well-trailed changes to the International Maritime Organisation’s marine fuel regulations due in 2020 are another big issue for some refiners as they seek to find outlets for unwanted high sulphur fuel oil,” IEA says in its report titled ‘A marathon, not a sprint.’ “By the end of the year, all industry players, upstream and downstream, may feel as if they have run a marathon.”
The IEA noted that nonOPEC production growth was set to slow to 1.6 million bpd in 2019 after record annual gains of 2.6 million bpd in 2018 while it’s also keeping its estimate of oil demand growth for this year unchanged at 1.4 million barrels per day, close to 2018 levels.