How to rescue Nigeria’s energy sector from sinking deeper into recession- Dr. Muda Yusuf, CPPE
Oredola Adeola
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, CPPE, has suggested that acceleration of the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act(PIA), and speedy resuscitation of domestic refining of petroleum products are parts of critical measures that should be put in place by the Nigerian Government to address contracted crude oil, gas, electricity output level and other sectoral issues bedeviling the Nigerian economy.
Dr. Muda Yusuf, Chief Executive Officer, CPPE, made this disclosure in a comment on the Quarterly GDP growth for the third quarter, Q3, 2022, exclusively obtained by EnergyDay on Monday.
The National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) in its third-quarter report of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) of 2022, showed that the economy dipped to 2.25%, from 3.54% in the second quarter.
EnergyDay’s findings showed that the recent report on Nigeria’s 8th consecutive quarterly GDP growth revealed that the energy sector is still contracting since the fourth quarter of 2020 after the global exit from the recession.
In the period under review, the report suggested that the real growth of the oil sector declined 22.67 percent (year-on-year) in Q3 2022 indicating a decrease of 11.94 percentage points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2021.
It said growth also decreased by 10.91 percent points when compared to Q2 2022 which was –11.77 percent.
Dr. Muda also urged the Nigerian Government to fix the macroeconomic headwinds of high inflation and currency volatility as parts of the reforms and intervention that must be put in place to salvage the Nigerian economy.
He said, “These are sectors that posted negative GDP growth suffering including Crude oil and gas which contracted by 22.67%, Electricity and Gas which contracted by 3.56%, and Oil refining which contracted 44.7%, were plagued by challenges of insecurity, wrong policy choices, structural impediments, plunge in productivity and corruption.
The CPPE CEO also noted that all the diverse headwinds that have been bedeviling the Nigerian economy can also be addressed by addressing the structural impediments to production and other economic activities, reforming the foreign exchange market to inspire investors’ confidence, addressing the challenges of insecurity and addressing the challenges of logistics.
He also recommended the need for the Government to take urgent steps to tame inflation and boost the purchasing power of the citizens and reform the monetary policies to facilitate financial deepening in the economy.
CPPE further suggested creative support for small businesses to promote economic inclusion, as well as fiscal reforms which prioritize infrastructural development and transparency in the budgetary process.
