Awka – A management expert, Mr Okey Ezeh has called on the Federal Government to urgently reappraise its economic policies with a view to finding short and medium term solutions to the current recession.
Ezeh, who is the Managing Director of Savvycorp limited, an investment consultancy firm said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Sunday.
While commending the idea of Treasury Single Account (TSA), the former banker faulted its implementation, adding that it had stifled a public sector fund which was a significant contributor to growth.
“The TSA as laudable as it is was ill implemented; the implementation of TSA quickened the recession.
“TSA is supposed to make for more transparency with government revenue and ensure best practice in the public sector.
“But the component of TSA that made for all public sector funds to go to the Central Bank of Nigeria was a great cause of depression in the economic system.
“It led to the strangulation of the real sector because when you starve the economy of investible funds, production can hardly go on, there is the need to review it.” he said.
He blamed the current state of the nation’s economy on past leaders who did not see the need to diversify the ‘economic base’ from oil while, other nations were developing alternative through research and technology.
According to him, Nigeria needs to develop its technology and harness other viable foreign exchange earners as the economy has virtually been overtaken by events in the developed world.
“The macro economic situation of Nigeria was an accident that was waiting for a long time to happen.
“What we are into now is what I call the third world syndrome, it is even worse than the third world syndrome, because some third world countries have managed to get out of the woods.
“We are in this mess because for too long, we depended on a mono basket economy, that is crude oil, we became comfortable with the revenue that accrued from it.
“Unfortunately, this was when the whole world was seeking alternatives to hydrocarbon which is a finite resource; they embarked on technological improvement and development research.
“Now, they have come out with their solution we are stuck in the past because we were relying on the boom and bust in the international oil market,” he said.
Ezeh also urged the Federal Government to reorder priorities in the public sector and stimulus fund to help the country pull out of recession.
“We must go back to the basis, curtail our excesses, reorder our priorities and convince the international community that we can manage our resources, they are disdainful of countries with signs that they cannot manage what they have.
“When there is a recession, there should be stimulus fund, bailout to help the economy recover, and key sectors that can drive the economy should be funded to get back to optimal productivity.
“There is also the need for sound economic team to look at all these and proffer solution to them,” he said.
