LCCI commends Buhari’s first term, outlines mistakes, solutions
Director- general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( LCCI), Muda Yusuf, has outlined various reasons responsible for major failures of Buhari’s first term and as well as commended the tenure for its activities in boosting the economy and the business environment.
In a statement, Yusuf stated that lack of viable economic plan, poor debt management, unfavourable forex policy, among other issues, were responsible for the economic woes and failures of President Buhari’s first term in office.
Speaking on major sectors of the economy, he stated that there was lack of investors in the country because the business environment as well as the country’s economy lacked viable and visible plans to foster investors’ confidence or attract foreign direct investment into the country, especially with the unfavourable forex policies that
stood as a determinant for successful businesses.
Speaking on the manufacturing sector, he said, “The manufacturing sector experienced some major challenges during the past four years. The factors were both external and domestic. The main external factor was the collapse of oil price, which affected forex availability and triggered sharp exchange rate depreciation.
“The high deficit in infrastructure, the gridlock at the Lagos ports, high interest rate and unfair competition from imported products were contributory factors that constrained the growth of the industrial sector during the review period as high energy cost continued to impede the competitiveness of the sector.”
On issues of the oil sector, he said the sector was being controlled by different problems both in the upstream and downstream segments ranging from excessive regulation to dominance of the state-owned oil company NNPC, slow policy reforms, among many others.
The country’s debt profile increased by 93 percent in three years from N12.6 trillion to N24.3 trillion, which according to Yusuf, was due to poor debt management that constrained the financial roles of the banking industry and therefore caused harm to the country’s wealth creation operation and employment generation intention.
He also commended the President for his feats in various sectors, which include substantial backward integration capabilities in the manufacturing sector, significant government support in the agricultural sector that improved productivity, and the central bank’s efforts in reducing access of the banking sector to investments in government debt instruments. This he explained caused a decline in banking credits to the private sector.
He advised that there was need for urgent economic diversification in the country across various sectors in order to achieve improved productivity and economic development.