BimbolaOyesola, [email protected]
The Federal Government would have to reorientate ways of governance, after the coronavirus may have abated, mostly in the area of budgeting.
Organised labour, at the weekend, expressed the conviction that the post-coronavirus period would call for sustainable, prompt budget releases.
IndustriALL Global’s vice president, Issa Aremu, said the current crisis has exposed the underbelly of poor governance, characterized by complacency, indifference and unnecessary competition among government agencies.
He noted that it was remarkable that the Federal House had also passed the Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill, 2020, to complement the plans of the executive arm, stating that Nigerians must operate collectively and make sure that coronavirus, being an opportunistic disease, would not overwhelm the nation.
He stated that fiscal authorities must complement the monetary policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for Nigeria to cope with the challenges of diversification and the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.
According to Aremu, this is not the time for uncritical cut in public spending: “Already, Nigeria has lowest budget per capita in the world. Additional reduction in the size of the 2020 budget by about N1.5 trillion, as part of the measures to address the impacts of coronavirus disease on the Nigerian economy will only undermine economic recovery and employment creation.
“CBN has rightly directed that all deposit money banks should increase their support to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries and support for funding intensive care as well as in training, laboratory testing, equipment and R&D.
“The bank has increased financial intervention by N100 billion in loan this year to support the health authorities to ensure laboratories, researchers and innovators work with global scientists to patent and or produce vaccines and test kits.”
Aremu said it was commendable that the governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, initiated proactive measures to ameliorate the impact of the disease on the economy that include: Cuts rates from 9 to 5 per cent per annum for one year effective March 1, 2020; Grants extension of moratorium on all CBN intervention facilities effective March 1, 2020, and N50bn targeted credit facility through NIRSAL Microfinance Bank for households and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hard hit by Covid-19.
He said, “It is also significant and commendable that President Muhammadu Buhari had promptly approved a N10 billion grant (about $27 million) to fight the spread of coronavirus, or COVID-19, and already released to Lagos State, which is still counting the highest number of coronavirus cases.”
On the lockdown, Aremu said it must be complemented with direct and targeted social transfer to the poor in formal and informal sectors whose per day incomes are endangered.
He added that, “With the spirited national efforts, this singular pandemic will come to pass, but the poverty and underdevelopment challenges would persist.
“Coronavirus crisis is another costly opportunity to reinvent an economy like China’s with remarkable resilience that has tamed the virus and restoring growth and development. Meanwhile we remain under lock and key against an invisible virus, ask about the plight of your neighbors and send relief materials for those in need.”