A senior lecturer of Economics at the University of Port Harcourt, associate Professor Peter Medee is backing President Tinibu for pegging the oil price at N750 to a dollar despite the fluctuating nature of the dollar. In an interview with our reporter, associate Professor Peter Medee said the figure is realizable if the country’s refineries are operational. He said with this, Nigeria is going to be exporting more and importing less, and the volume of naira that is being sought to buy finished products of crude oil which include diesel, petrol, and other finished products that deal with those aspects of expenditure that is done externally will be reduced, and if that is reduced, it will go a long way determining the exchange rate of the naira. Adding that it is going to be a great deal if that N750 is going to be exchanged for the dollar.
Associate Professor Peter Medee however advised the Federal Government to increase activities in capital projects to stimulate the nation’s economy. He said that the government should take seriously everything that has to do with capital expenditure, and when capital expenditure is implemented, then it is going to sure down with a multiplying effect in such that those in the villages will begin to feel the budget. But if they depend on recurrent expenditure where salaries and other monument will be shared in Abuja, then it is not going to have an effect on the economy. Stating that the economy today is suffering, and it is difficult for Nigerians to eat, and the only way the government can begin to tickle down expenditures that would have a direct impact on the economy is when they strengthen production and implement capital expenditure to the later.
On how the Federal Government intends to finance the 2024 budget deficit of 18 trillion naira, through new borrowing, privatization proceeds, and bilateral, the lecturer of economics said the projection is workable. He explained that what is important about the loan is when you tie it to a specific project, it makes a lot of meaning than when you borrow money and allow it at the coffer of the government, and the government uses it to throw a party and do other things that do not trickle on investment and production, then that is when the economy suffers from facilities that are taking in terms of the loan. But if the budget is going to be tied to the specific project and is going to be sourced from Nigeria, and not from outside the country, then it is going to be good.
