By Kunle SHONUGA
Financial experts on Tuesday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a new cabinet early and ensure the nomination of technocrats to turnaround the economy.
TBI Africa said they stated this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on post-election expectations from the new government.
Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella, Professor of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye, Ogun, said the president should not only form his cabinet in time but ensure placement of round pegs in round holes.
Tella said the president should appointment successful technocrats as ministers for the country to achieve the desired growth and development.
“If the current structure of ministers is checked, it should be clear that some square pegs are forced into round holes,” Tella said.
He noted that “each state has required professionals in any ministerial position.”
Tella said budget implementation must not be delayed after passage by the legislature to sustain the gains of economic growth reported in the last quarter of 2018.
He noted that the current National Assembly should work hard to pass the 2019 budget before the end of the legislative year.
According to him, it is the least they can do for the economy to move forward.
“The 2015 budget was passed before they resumed. Budget delays throughout the period of the current NASS seem to have overshadowed the successes they achieved in terms of the unprecedented number of bills passed by the two houses,” he stated.
Tella also called on government to bring back the culture of national planning that would design where the country wishes to be in 2030, 2040 and possibly 2050.
“A nation that fails to plan, as they say, plans to fail. All the states must have long term plans and the same for local governments.
“It is from such plans that each state will be able to generate revenues from its own resources rather than dependent on the centre,” he said.
Tella explained that planning would aid economic development and as well offer foreign partners and the private sector the opportunity to know where to come in or their roles in the development of the nation.
Mr Sola Oni, a chartered stockbroker and Chief Executive Officer, Sofunix Investment and Communications, said the government should review stakeholders’ engagement policy.
Oni said every stakeholder should be encouraged to articulate its specific needs to the government.
“As for the capital market, the government should implement all the outstanding requests such as deepening the market by using fiscal incentives to encourage listing of multinational companies and indigenous ones.
“The market is a derivative of the economy. The market shall become attractive to investors if the economy is growing optimally because the quoted companies operate in the economy,” Oni said.
He said stockbrokers should henceforth be involved in articulating policies that were geared towards market development.
Oni noted that presently “there appears to be a disconnect between the policies and the operators.”
He said real investors would start taking position in the stock market following the end of the general elections.
“There is relative stability in the polity and we do not expect unguarded utterances from the political class any more.
“We expect real investors to take position while good corporate earnings have potential to create a rally,” Oni added.
