Yemisi Izuora
The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the Center For The Promotion Of Private Enterprise, CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, has demanded immediate removal of petrol subsidy regime and plugging of all identified revenue leakages in the oil and gas industry.
Yusuf, in a detailed document presenting an economic agenda for the incoming administration said, one of the key considerations to stabilize Nigeria’s macroeconomic system is to undertake a wide-ranging reforms in oil and gas industry, the regulatory environment, and pursue fiscal consolidation.
“The Nigerian economy is in a stumbling and fragile state and in dire need of a new direction. The political transition offers a great opportunity to chart a new course,” Yusuf, Director said in the document.
Yusuf said the administration should establish quality economic governance for signalling and investors’ confidence.
On the fiscal space, he said the president-elect should reform the nation’s tax regime to ensure efficiency in tax administration, reduce tax evasion and tax avoidance and eliminate multiple taxation. The new administration should also eliminate the fuel subsidy to save an estimated N7 trillion annually, he said.
The government should also unlock more income from revenue-generating agencies through enhanced efficiency of their operations.; initiate budget reforms to ensure fiscal discipline, curb budget padding, and curb duplication of projects and review the service wide votes to ensure transparency, he said.
On monetary policy, Yusuf called for the elimination of foreign exchange subsidies to unlock a minimum of N3 trillion revenue annually from the sale of CBN forex to the official foreign exchange window.
Yusuf also called for the removal of impediments to market mechanisms in allocation of forex. “This will boost inflows from Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign Portfolio Investment, Export Proceeds and Diaspora remittances,” he said.
“The new president should also appoint a substantive minister of Petroleum Resources “to promote professionalism and transparency in the sector. The practice of the President assuming the role of Minister of Petroleum should be discontinued,” “To achieve these, the president-elect should set up a Transition Committee on the Economy “to come up with propositions of what needs to be done differently and ensure the delivery quick wins in the first one month of the administration”. added Yusuf.