Nigeria: Press spotlights IMF’s position on Nigeria’s food insecurity, others

The report that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday asked the Nigerian Government to pay immediate attention to food insecurity in the country is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
Vanguard newspaper reports the International Monetary Fund, IMF, yesterday asked the Federal Government to pay immediate attention to food insecurity in the country.
The IMF’s position came on a day governors said Nigeria must go into production if it must get the people out of the current hardship.
At the 16th Edition of the Leadership Annual Conference and Awards, the IMF made its position known in its End-of-Mission statement issued after the completion of the IMF Staff 2024 Article IV Mission to Nigeria.
This is even as former Anambra State governor and 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi, who decried the hardship in the country, said he was not desperate to be president but “desperate to make Nigeria work.”
Also, former Deputy Governor (Financial Stability) of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Professor Kingsley Moghalu, advocated the sale of government assets to raise funds, totalling $18-20 billion, which could be channelled into bolstering foreign reserves to stabilize forex and overcome economic woes.
However, President Bola Tinubu urged Nigerians to be patient, assuring them that his economic reforms will stabilize the country.
President Tinubu, Obi and Moghalu also spoke at the Leadership annual event, which served as a stage for political figures, statesmen and other dignitaries to highlight the importance of increasing productivity as a means of elevating Nigeria from her current state of hardship and steering her toward economic stability and strength.
The newspaper says that a former Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State said that the Nigerian government still pays subsidy on petroleum products.
Yuguda stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu, in his inaugural speech, announced that “The fuel subsidy is gone.”
The President added that the 2023 Budget made no provision for fuel subsidy and more so, subsidy payment was no longer justifiable.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in one of its reports last month also advised Nigeria to completely phase out costly fuel and electricity subsidies as part of measures to address its economic challenges.
Speaking on the issue of subsidy, ”If the IMF says we are paying subsidy then we are. But the subsidy that was removed was the one that was going into private pockets and I decoupled that subsidy that ordinarily shouldn’t have been paid.”
”If it should have been paid it should be paid into the treasury of the country and today that revenue increase that we see is reflected in the removal of the monies that were going into the pockets of private individuals is what is going into the treasury of the country.”
”You have that subsidy being paid on petrol products that are pumped through pipelines and in many instances they are pumped through imaginary pipelines, where the pipelines don’t exist, sow e all pay subsidy but that what was the President removed, that is why most states are getting twice or thrice of their allocation.”
On the economic hardship in the country, the former governor said the average Nigerian will not understand the challenges the president has to face in resolving the economic situation.
The Punch reports that the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said that 767 manufacturers shut down operations while 335 became distressed in 2023.
This came against the backdrop of exchange rate volatility, rising inflation and other economic challenges that have worsened the investment climate.
MAN stated this in a statement in which it condemned the recently introduced Expatriate Employment Levy by the Federal Government.
The association said it was struck with disbelief, seeing that the levy runs contrary to President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the kernel of his Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform initiative.
According to MAN, the unintended negative consequences on the manufacturing sector are humongous and cannot be accommodated at this time of evident downturn in our economy.
The statement read in part, “The imposition of EEL poses a potential impact on the manufacturing sector and the economy at large.
“This will in turn mark an unwarranted and unprecedented addition to the cost of doing business in Nigeria, especially to manufacturers. The manufacturing sector is already beset with multidimensional challenges. In the year 2023, 335 manufacturing companies became distressed and 767 shut down.”
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Exchange has emerged as the number one exchange in Africa in the first two months of 2024, as investors enjoyed 33.70 per cent returns on investors.
A statement from the NGX on Tuesday revealed that the local bourse was rated as the best-performing in Africa ahead of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Egyptian Exchange (EGX 30) Index and The Ghana Stock Exchange.
Earlier in January, NGX emerged as world’s best-performing stock market in the first three weeks of 2024, beating Argentina, which came second.
Between January and February, the market capitalisation has appreciated by N13.79tn. The market cap of listed equities had opened the year at N40.917tn and closed February at N54.707tn.
Similarly, the NGX’s All-Share Index, which is the benchmark index closed February at 99,980.30 points, marking an increase of 25,206.53 basis points or 33.71 per cent from 74,773.77 points it opened for trading this year.
The equity market’s impressive performance in the first two months of this year was despite rising insecurity, inflation, and unstable foreign exchange, among other domestic macroeconomic challenges and global uncertainty.
The market, which was bullish in January, producing N1tn cap companies fairly regularly, slowed in February as the bears reared their heads.
GIK/APA