- Renowned economist Bismarck Rewane emphasizes that Nigerians prioritize lower prices of essential commodities over budget figures.
- President Tinubu's N27.5trn 2024 budget proposal is deemed less meaningful to average citizens, with the focus on the real impact on daily living costs like rice, bread, and garri.
- Rewane stresses the urgency of addressing rising prices, linking economic stability to tangible improvements in people's day-to-day livelihoods.
Bismarck Rewane, a renowned economist and the Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, has expressed his views on the N27.5trn 2024 budget proposal presented by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, November 30. He said that Nigerians are not concerned about the budget numbers, but rather the impact of the budget on the prices of essential commodities like rice, bread, and garri.
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Bismarck Rewane Says Nigerians Want Lower Prices, Not Budget Figures. Photos credit:@BjRewane/@officialasiwjubat. Source:Twitter |
President Tinubu, in his first budget speech before the National Assembly, said that the 2024 budget aims to achieve micro-economic stability, poverty reduction, and greater access to social security, among other objectives. He outlined the priority areas of the budget, such as security, local job creation, macro-economic stability, investment environment optimization, human capital development, poverty reduction, and social security.
He also gave a breakdown of the budget estimates, which include recurrent non-debit expenditure of N9.92trn, capital expenditure of N8.73trn, debt service of N8.25trn, revenue of N18.32trn, new borrowings of N7.83trn and deficit of N9.18trn.
However, Rewane said that these figures are meaningless to the average Nigerian, who is more interested in how the budget will affect their daily living. He said, “In the end, budgetary arithmetics, budgetary mathematics in economics is of no use to anybody except when by this time, six months’ time, if we are buying rice at N40,000 a bag rather than N60,000 a bag, if we are buying bread N900 a big loaf instead of N1,300 which we are doing today. If we are buying garri at lower prices.
“The people are not interested in whether the budget is balanced and what the debt is. How does it (the budget) affect their day-to-day livelihood? That is the key thing.”
He also said that the prices of goods and services have gone up and people are under tremendous pressure. He noted that the rate of poverty in the country is driving people mad. He said, “You will notice that on the streets of Lagos in particular, the number of lunatics has increased and part of it is driven by poverty. Many mental health issues. People are pushed to the wall. Some of them walk across the road even in moving traffic.
“People need to feel the impact. the impact is not going to be felt because of 10 or 12% of GDP, that is N27trn; it has to be more. Where is the more going to come from? It’s going to come from investors and investors are going to come here when they are sure that their money is safe and the environment is clean, and they can look forward to a brighter future.”
He also urged the government to be honest with Nigerians on the economic realities, saying that “honesty is in short supply”. He said that people cannot start pretending to be happy. “You can fake news but you can’t fake prosperity,” he said.