Nigeria may be set for huge economic growth owing to the current financial and economic reforms embarked on by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a stakeholder in Nigeria’s energy sector, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has said.
President Tinubu had announced two major economic reforms including the removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of the naira’s multiple exchange rates.
Olawepo-Hashim, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was a presidential aspirant during the last election told journalists in Abuja yesterday that the country would be better for it.
He said the current policy reforms have eliminated distortions in foreign exchange management on the one hand and removed the corrupt system of oil subsidies on the other hand.
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“Before now, there were four foreign exchange (FX) markets: the Interbank FX market, the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, Bureau De Change (BDC) window, and the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) window. However, due to the limited FX supply from exporters and foreign investors, the CBN played a significant role in supplying FX (in this case, USD) to these windows,” he said.
He, however, stated that the policy to unify the exchange windows should have a long-term positive effect on the foreign exchange rate and free flow of capital in the country while also yielding a positive impact due to increased confidence in the new government.
According to him, the removal of the subsidies regime in the pricing of petroleum products is expected to lead to more investment in mid and downstream subsectors of the oil and gas sectors with a net effect of the creation of value-added needed jobs.
He stressed that the new law on decentralisation of electricity generation, transmission and distribution if properly implemented with concomitant policies, is capable of attracting about 300 billion US dollars over 5 to 7 years into the electricity sector from local and foreign financing sources.
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