President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday directed key ministers in the nation’s economic space to collaborate and come up with a comprehensive economic policy document that will keep the economy functioning in the face of the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
The President, in nationwide broadcast to update Nigerians on steps being taken by the Federal Government to address the COVID-19 pandemic challenge, said such a policy document would be handy to his administration in adopting the best options to sustain the economy on the path of sustainable growth.
This is even as he also charged the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development as well as other relevant agencies, personnel and those in special programmes initiated by the government to ensure the impact of the pandemic on the country’s 2020 farming season is minimized. Specifically, President Buhari listed the ministers charged with the responsibility of developing the economic policy as including Ministers of Industry, Trade and Investment, Communication and Digital Economy, Science and Technology, Transportation, Aviation, Interior, Health, Works and Housing, Labour and Employment and Education.
He said: “As a result of this pandemic, the world as we know it has changed. The way we interact with each other, conduct our businesses and trade, travel, educate our children and earn our livelihoods will be different. “To ensure our economy adapts to this new reality, I am directing the Ministers of Industry, Trade and Investment, Communication and Digital Economy, Science and Technology, Transportation, Aviation, Interior, Health, Works and Housing, Labour and Employment and Education to jointly develop a comprehensive policy for a “Nigerian economy functioning with COVID-19”, the President added.
He explained that in order to make the ministers promptly execute their mandate, they will be supported by the Presidential Economic Advisory Council and Economic Sustainability Committee. On the agriculture minister’s mandate, President Buhari directed the Minister, the National Security Adviser, the Vice Chairman, National Food Security Council and the Chairman, Presidential Fertilizer Initiative to work with the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to ensure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s 2020 farming season is minimized. Commenting on the extension of the lockdown order, an economist and public affairs commentator, Mr. David Aku, said the one month lockdown would mean more job cuts and more Nigerians would enter the poverty bracket.
He also said effectively, businesses that have shut down operations for a month might not pay salaries. Similarly, another analyst and Senior Economist with SPM Professionals, Mr. Paul Alaje, cautioned that the extension of the lockdown portended worsening poverty, hunger, unemployment rates and economic recession for the country. He said: “The President says the social register will be expanded from 2.6 million to 3.6 million households. But the figures we have about those that are poor are over 80 million people in Nigeria. So, if we make provision for only 3.6 million households. That is small.” An Abuja-based economist and financial expert, Simon Galadima, said the initiative by the President was desirable and urged the ministers to work closely with the economic management team to come up with workable and doable solutions to stimulate the economy.
According to him, since the pandemic will likely affect all sectors of the economy, fiscal policy can be made to influence key sectors of the economy, especially the agricultural sector in terms of funding and grants with low interest rates adding that it will assist in supporting the supply side. . “Small businesses must be stimulated too because if the supply is there and the demand is not there, there will be disequilibrium in the market forces” he said. “So FG must likely stimulate both the demand and supply side through a lot of borrowing, and one way I can suggest that is by CBN embarking on Open Market Operation (OMO) to ensure liquidity “ Galadima advised.
