Tough times ahead in post 2015 elections
The 2015 election will certainly come and go but the after effect may linger for a long time. Whether it is PDP or APC that eventually wins the presidential election, the party that will come to power post-election had better get prepared for the handling of the economy. As it stands, the nation is on a financial cliff that can fall off any time except a miracle happens. The one commodity that provides life support for the economy has seen its price at the international market fallen to as low as $58 per barrel.
Nigerian economy on a debt cliff
Nigerian economy is on the stranglehold of debt. At the national, sub-national, corporate and individual levels, debts owed to banks have held the economy to a stranglehold, impeding real economic growth though policymakers are not admitting same. Since the financial crisis of 2008, corporate indebtedness has almost wiped out the assets of companies in the country.
Low interest rate or high inflation: Which is better for the economy?
Economics is a science of choice. Decision making involves making a choice. Among competing wants, preference has to be put on scale and selection made on the best alternative. Every being on earth makes economic decisions. Housewives in particular make several choices based on available resources.
Nigeria: Too many ideas
Nigeria is a country of 167 million people by the current population estimate. Just as the population is fast growing, so are the ideas of how to grow the economy. Just as every Nigerian is a football coach, so is every Nigerian a development economist. Each person has his/her own idea and whether they are motor park economists or classroom economists, whichever group gets the ears of the powers-that-be has its way.
Will Nigeria fail again in 2030 to reduce extreme poverty?
At the end of the 2013 Spring Meetings of World Bank Group/IMF, world financial leaders avowed to two specific global agenda. First, a historic opportunity to end extreme poverty within a generation, the global target of reducing extreme poverty rate, the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day to three per cent by 2030.
Budget 2013 may be frustrated, if crude prices continue to drop
In an article on this column on May 30, 2012, titled “The proverbial rains are here,” many Nigerians including the Federal Government, did not take the warning seriously. In Washington DC on Thursday, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonzo-Iweala, called an emergency press conference to warn the nation of the impending drop in the nation’s finances as a result of falling oil prices and the continued vandalisation of pipelines by oil thieves.
