By Henry Uche
Following the CBN’s call for backward integration to boost domestic production of goods and services, economic experts have maintained that such plan would not be possible where there is deficiency in foreign exchange and divergent exchange rates among other bottlenecks.
Speaking on Channels TV business morning, yesterday, the CEO of Coleman Wires and Cable, George Onafowokan, urged the federal government to make forex available and channel its plans, programs and policies to a targeted direction and pursue it vigorously.
He said, “The economic outlook for 2021 will be stable to negative, however, Covid-19 can have positive impact on to manufacturing if we play the right tools and get things right”.
On his part, a research Analyst from Financial Derivatives Company, Nosike Nwajide, also affirmed that foreign investors have little or no confidence in Nigeria’s forex market following the economic developments in 2020. The analyst maintained that Nigeria’s ability to implement at least 90 percent of the national budget is dependent on the availability of funds.
Nwajide urged the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting holding soon to maintain Status quo, watch and see the effects of previous policies designed before taking any strategic decisions. He charged FG to tackle the pandemic conscientiously bearing in mind the implications of paying deaf ears to economic advise accross board.
On his part, the senior Vice president & Head of Research, Chapel Hill Denham, Tajudeen Ibrahim, who spoke on AIT (MorninglinewithNancy), said, while the FG keeps borrowing, it must look inward to develop its Local capacity by giving a visible support to technocrats, entrepreneurs and industrialists especially Startups as the world looks inward to fortify their economies in case of emergencies like Covid-19.
He urged members of MPC to be pro-growth in their forthcoming meeting, leaving all indicators and interest rate unchanged. “We expect them to leave everything unchanged to favor economic growth, though we expect a two percent economic growth on 2021, a high inflation in H1 and lower inflation in H2 of this year,” he stressed.