Nigerians Will Not Care About Budgetary Maths Unless Food Prices Drop—Rewane
If the costs of staple foods like rice, bread, and garri don’t decrease, Nigerians, according to renowned economist Bismarck Rewane, won’t care about budgetary data.
Rewane, the Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, announced this on Thursday in Lagos.
He made the following statement: “In the end, budgetary arithmetic and budgetary mathematics in economics are useless to anybody except when, by this time, six months’ time, if we are buying rice at N40,000 a bag instead of N60,000 a bag, if we are buying bread at N900 a big loaf instead of N1,300,”
Balanced budgets and debt levels are irrelevant to the public. How does the allocation of funds impact their income on a daily basis? I can’t stress that enough.
Microeconomic stability, poverty reduction, and increased access to social security were among the many goals outlined by President Bola Tinubu in his inaugural budget presentation to the National Assembly on Wednesday. The budget, which is proposed at N27.5 trillion for 2024, would fund these and other initiatives.
He emphasised the need of addressing pressing issues including safety, local employment, macroeconomic stability, investment climate optimisation, human capital development, poverty reduction, and social security.
The president set the following budget estimates: recurrent non-debit expenditure at N9.92 trillion, capital expenditure at N8.73 trillion, debt service at N8.25 trillion, income at N18.32 trillion, fresh borrowings at N7.83 trillion, and deficit at N9.18 trillion.
People are more concerned with seeing the tangible results of the government’s economic policies than they are with abstract numbers, according to Rewane’s final study of the budget proposal. This is because many people are feeling the strain of these policies.
“And as you know, prices are up and people are under great strain,” he continued, saying that the country’s poverty rate is causing individuals to lose their minds.
Poverty is a contributing factor to the rise in the amount of insane people you’ll see on the streets of Lagos in particular. A wide variety of mental health concerns exist. Everyone is at their wit’s end. There are a few who cross the street on foot, even when the traffic is flowing.
“The effect must be felt by the people. Ten or twelve percent of GDP, or N27 trillion, won’t cut it; more is required. Can you tell me where I can find the funds? That money will come from investors, and those investors will come here when they know their money is secure, the place is clean, and the future is bright.
The economist warned that “honesty is in limited supply” and urged the government of Nigeria to be forthright with the people about the country’s economic situation.
People can’t just start acting joyful all the time, in his opinion. You may make up news, but wealth is impossible to fake, he declared.