A former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, on Monday called on the federal government to maximise the benefits of Nigeria being a $400 billion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) economy by broadening its internal revenue generation efforts rather than relying on public borrowings to finance its budget deficits.
Speaking on national television, Moghalu said, Nigeria’s current budget of N13trillion has a N5trillion deficit component, and that the huge deficit would not have existed if the government had deepened its internal revenue mobilisation.
He said the budget is N13 trillion, while N5 trillion of it is deficit, but the problem is how to finance the fiscal responsibilities of the government.
“I have a problem with the way it is currently being managed. There is an overarching reliance on borrowing, as a way to finance Nigeria’s budget deficit. Those deficits do not even need to exist in the first place, at least to a significant extent, if the government of Nigeria were to pursue effective revenue mobilisation from within its own economy.
“Nigeria has a good fortune of being a $400 billion GDP economy. The only problem we have is that all that is a fact but the lives of the poor Nigerians are not impacted in any positive way.”
He also highlighted the need to hinge Nigeria’s economy on a sound economic philosophical foundation to create a level playing field and work for the good of the markets and other economic actors.
Moghalu, who was the presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party in the 2019 presidential election, stated that there is insufficient clear thinking going into the country’s economic policy decision making.
He said the economics of countries are built on a strong philosophical foundation that guides the market place. “We have not done this in Nigeria. We are not very sure of what Nigeria’s economic philosophy is.
“There is a very strong statist instinct in the current government since 2015 and that interferes with the efficiency of the market place. The government has a role, but the question is what that role is?
“In my view, that role should be to create an enabling environment through effective regulation and policies. Then you let the market flow. But instead, the government wants to determine many things, including the price of the naira to the dollar.
“And because of insufficient understanding of economics among the populace, many people feel that if the naira is one-to-one with the dollar then that is a wonderful thing.
“The naira can be one-to-one with the dollar. There is nothing wrong with that but on what basis? You have to be a productive economy and exporting finished goods with value to underpin the value of your currency” he said.