CEM REPORT, ECONOMY | An expert has said Nigeria needs to unlock its dead assets to grow; if not, there will be a problem.
He named Nigeria’s major dead assets as its real estate assets while also listings Ajaokuta Steel Plant and Nigeria’s refineries as other dead assets.
The Advisory Partner & Chief Economist of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Andrew Nevin who made this statement stated that Nigeria neither has a revenue problem, nor a debt problem, but a growth problem.
His statement disagrees with Nigeria’s minister of finance, who has on many occasions said “Nigeria doesn’t have a debt problem, but revenue problem.”
While speaking at the first Webinar Session organized by Nairametrics, with the theme: ‘2023 Economic Opportunities to Mitigate Impact of Headwinds’, he said when Nigeria has a growth of 3% and the government became more predatory over the last couple of years towards businesses and individuals in extracting value, it becomes a very difficult situation.
He added that ”if Nigeria were at 10% growth a year, the country could have tax revenues growing at 15% a year, and the system would work, but right now it’s not working. “But we continue to say it’s a growing problem; people don’t want to invest in this country because we’re not growing. So I think we’re in a crisis right now but for the next government it will take policies to fix them.”
He commended Nigeria on its growth in service export than good export noting that the Indian economy is already exporting services to the tune of $200 billion. On that note, he urged the Nigerian government to invest in educating the youth population and exporting services.
While advising that brain capital is the best investment in Nigeria, he, however, warned that investing in the broader economy is very risky because of inflation. He stated that over the past eight years, Nigeria has had a very harsh business environment, with the local currency losing its store of value characteristic, and getting harsher.
