A member of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and former adviser to president Olusegun Obasanjo on economic affairs, Prof Ode Ojowu has expressed satisfaction with the relatability of reports released by the National Bureau of Statistics( NBS) to the performance of the economy in recent time.
In an exclusive interview with cbdmediaedge, Prof Ojowu confirmed that the reports of NBS were a true reflection of the nature of Nigeria’s economy where, contrary to what many may expect, there was growth in GDP in the second quarter attributable to the resilient nature of the Nigerian economy. According to him “the Nigerian economy is overly resilient, if not, the pressure on the economy is enough to explode it “. He said the degree of resilience was found in the contribution of agriculture which has attracted farmers to participate, as a survival strategy, in the farming of food crops, come rain, come sunshine. According to him, farmers are motivated by the need to survive by all means and to have an occupation. The second reason was the availability of varieties of crops in Nigeria which unlike many other countries there is a limit to the diversification of production. “Malawi for example relies only on maize while in Egypt, the lack of bread could cause a major riot. The pressure to survive normally pushes the farmers to produce varieties of crops that contribute positively to the GDP in Nigeria. This combination of two factors makes the economy to be resilient and has held it together for a long time” he said.
However farmers, according to the don, are increasingly getting old and their children are not following them to the farm thereby putting the resilience of the economy on a litmus test. Similarly, the insecurity on the farms is a major concern that might affect the trajectory of the growth of agriculture in the future.
He commended NBS as an organisation that has improved in its data collection methodology, which was recently digitalized and thereby allowing raw data collection in the remotest part of the country.
In the report released last week by NBS,
Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.54% year-on-year in real terms in the second quarter of 2022, an improvement compared to the 3.11% growth recorded in the previous quarter.
The data also showed that the industrial sector contributed 19.4%, es accounted for 57.35% of the GDP, while aand culture contributed 23.4%.
Nigeria’s non-oil sector contributed 93.67% to the nation’s GDP in the second quarter of 2022, higher than the share recorded in the second quarter of 2021 which was 92.58% and also higher than the first quarter of 2022 recorded as 93.37%.
Of major concern in the report is the fact that food inflation, which has a direct bearing on the life of ordinary people, has increased since last year. Indeed, out of about 700 items in the CPI index report previously released by NBS, food and beverages represent about 51% of the basket of items that increased in inflation figure to 18.5% from 17.7% of the same previous 2021.
The food inflation has weakened household consumption and left many Nigerian poorer amidst increased prices of other commodities like gas, electricity, transportation etc.
The causes in the prices of food are partly attributable to exogenous factors like disruption in the food supply chain in the world caused by the war between Russain and Ukraine who are major importers and exporters of agricultural products. In Nigeria, there is also increased insecurity on the farms which limits food production to a larger extent.
Similarly in the report, the reduction in crude production due to economic sabotage has reduced daily production from 1.6million barrels per day to 1.43m barrels per day in the same period of 2021. This has denied the country the opportunity to increase revenue and gain the much-needed foreign exchange. This has put unnecessary pressure on the Naira and led to increasing prices of goods and services in a country that has a high marginal propensity to import like Nigeria.
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