Nigeria’s economy bleeding seriously, says LCCI

In from Ali Smart …

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has decried the parlous state of economy, saying the manufacturing and the service sector have entered recession after recording successive decline over the last two quarters and asked for urgent measures to be taken.

The LCCI spoke through its President, Mr. Remi Bello.

He spoke at the 2015, 3rd quarter media parley in Lagos on Friday.

He blamed the sector decline on the CBN tight forex policies which made it difficult for manufacturers to acquire imported inputs among others.

He said the vulnerability of the nation’s economy to external shocks and heightened fiscal challenges are beginning to manifest with the collapse of crude oil price which according to him may result to fiscal instability of government and inability of many public sector institutions to meet their financial obligations to contractors and civil servants.

“CBN foreign exchange policy needs to be urgently reviewed to encourage the inflow of autonomous funds into the foreign exchange market. The current tight exchange controls is a major disincentive to the inflow of Diaspora funds, export proceeds and other autonomous funds into the economy, thus worsening the foreign exchange crisis. The CBN needs to be creative in its fight against money laundering in order to minimise disruptions to economic activities. Its current approach has caused considerable disruptions to economic activities in the country.”

Read also: LCCI raises concerns over CBN forex policy

On the impact on the manufacturing sector, he said the sovereign risk perception of Nigeria has worsened over the last two months.

The LCCI boss further suggested regular value-for-money audit in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), greater vigilance on fiscal leakages from ghost workers, ghost pensioners and ghost institutions to stimulate the economy.

The nation’s economy is in dire straight as the 2nd quarter economic growth represents a 40 per cent decline from the 3.96 recorded in the first quarter.

A report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the nation’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell to 2.35 per cent compared to 6.54 per cent in the same period last year.

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