Nigerians bothered about rising food prices, not budget, says Rewane

The Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Bismarck Rewane, has disclosed that Nigerians are more concerned about the ballooning cost of food items and not in the details of the 2024 budget recently presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu yesterday.

Rewane made this known while speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Business Morning’ show, on Thursday, November 30, 2023.

He disclosed that “In the end, budgetary arithmetic, budgetary mathematics in economics is of no use to anybody except when by this time, six months 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.”

Speaking on, Rewane said that many people have become more frustrated in the face of the hard economic realities facing the country while noting that the high level of poverty is already causing mental health challenges for many people.

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.

READ ALSO:Nigeria’s GDP to lose $18m monthly due to Naira redesign —Rewane

“We are having “many mental health issues. People are pushed to the wall. Some of them walk across the road even in moving traffic.”

Rewane added, “People need to feel the impact of the budget. the impact is not going to be felt because of 10 or 12 per cent of GDP, that is N27 trillion; 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 said the government must be honest with Nigerians on the economic realities, noting that people cannot start pretending to be happy.

“You can fake news but you can’t fake prosperity,” Rewane noted.

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