At CSEA, NBS Forum on GDP Rebasing, Experts Proffer Solutions to Nigeria’s Ailing Economy

•Statistics office says new data critical for achieving $1tn GDP aspiration 

•Economists want real impact of FG’s reforms on grassroots

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Various economic experts and government officials yesterday proffered solutions to Nigeria’s ailing economy, especially against the backdrop of the country’s recently rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI).

At a one-day sensitisation workshop on Nigeria’s rebased GDP and CPI organised by the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA) in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the participants agreed that the updated data was critical for policy formulation.

In his opening remarks at the event which took place in Abuja, the Statistician General of the Federation and Chief Executive of the NBS, Adeyemi Adeniran, reiterated the importance of data to the socio-economic growth and development of any country, especially on the back of the  $1 trillion economy by the Bola Tinubu administration.

Adeniran stressed that by updating the framework, it will ensure that all resources of the country, both natural and human resources, are exploited sustainably, efficiently, and effectively for the benefit of the whole citizenry.

He explained that such sessions on the GDP and CPI figures were necessary as Nigerians still complain that despite the economy enlarging,  it has not permeated and its impact is still not felt at the grassroots.

He highlighted the importance of ensuring that adequate and reliable information is made available to all users, including government, policy makers, researchers, private sector operators, investors, and development partners, to take the right decisions and track the effectiveness of their programmes.

“ It is important that we understand the data well for appropriate application and use. This is why this event has been put together for us to discuss today.

“By fostering a culture of data literacy, which this workshop and engagement like this are designed to promote, we can ensure that policy makers and all our esteemed users are aware of the results and use them as a powerful tool to decide and track effective policies and programmes to achieve desired objectives,” he added.

Executive Director of CSEA, Dr Chukwuka Onyekwena, in his remarks, stressed that the workshop was a natural extension of the mission of the organisation founded by ex-Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to ensure that new data is not only produced, but also disseminated.

According to him, the economic data updates are aimed at ensuring that national statistics reflect current realities of the economy and also meet global best practices as well as capture new and emerging sectors.

“The last exercise has revealed new insights, including conveying the large contributions of previously unreported sectors. Similarly, revising the CPI methodology is crucial for accurately measuring inflation, which directly affects every household and firm.

“The CPI tracks changes in the cost of a representative basket of goods and services over time. By updating the composition of that basket, the data sources and the weighting of items, it ensures that inflation figures truly reflect the current spending patterns of individual households.

“This is vital for setting monetary policy, adjusting wages, planning social benefits, and assessing the real purchasing power of citizens. For these changes to translate into better economic outcomes, they must be understood by a much wider audience,” he added.

Speaking during a panel session, President of the Nigerian Economic Society (NES), Prof Adeola Adenikinju, argued that Nigeria’s economy has declined, with the manufacturing sector also shrinking.

He argued that it was impossible to build a sustainable and strong economy and reduce poverty and high unemployment without a strong industrial and agricultural base.

The NES president argued that real income remains weak in Nigeria, while the pressure on the social sector remains high, and therefore advised that the industrial and agricultural sectors should be protected to reduce the pressure.

Also speaking, a Professor of Finance and Capital Markets, Uche Uwaleke, argued that if the country must grow, it should focus on developing its human capital, optimise the utilisation of its natural resources, reduce corruption, among others.

“ You saw the recent numbers again by the NBS on capital importation reports. In Q1, capital importation was $5.6 billion, out of which FDI was just $236 million. You can’t industrialise with FDI at just 2 per cent,” he pointed out.

In his intervention, the President of the Nigerian Association for Energy Economics and former Director, Monetary Policy at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Hassan Mahmud, noted that rebasing has giving a space to new segments in the nation’s economy.

 “ So, it’s important that we focus our development plan to fit the utility functions or  demand preferences of our economy. There’s nothing wrong in investing in the oil and gas sector to develop our economy, but there’s backward integration, there’s forward integration, there’s vertical integration.

 “ Let’s go vertical. From proceeds of oil, gas, you have urea, you have fertiliser, which you can feed to agriculture,” he said, underscoring the need for Nigeria to fully optimise its natural resources, as it is not currently impacting on employment and productivity.

Chief Executive of the Bank of Industry (BOA) Ayo Sotinrin, said there was the need to raise productivity in agriculture, which he argued also negatively impacts the bottomline of Nigerian farmers.

Also, the Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Obi Asika, said there was still a lot of work to be done on reworking the data for the arts and culture sector, since it also feeds into other segments like telecoms, among others.