How Much Of Our Output Numbers Is Government’s Doing?, By Uddin Ifeanyi
...there’s a very strong case for insisting that the recovery in domestic output growth that we’re seeing in the country, today, is simply piggy-backing on better global oil prices. It is not, in other words, the consequence, yet, of anything the government has done. An ongoing conceit of the Buhari…
Lunch, Ramadan, and Grisly Tales, By Uddin Ifeanyi
Oil export earnings, it would then seem, remains the be-all and end-all of our economy. Even the non-oil sector of the economy is but a derivative of the oil sector. Without it, consumer spending, about 70 per cent of domestic output, collapses, and along with it, demand for the output…
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Pictures and the Stories They Tell, By Uddin Ifeanyi
You could given our general predilections, the conduct of our delegate to the was inevitable. Probably. Still, the sleep-besotted part of that picture raised further questions. For one, “How do we appoint people into positions of authority?” Pictures tell a more compelling story — than plain words — we are…
Venezuela: Democracy, Through The Military’s Looking Glass?, By Uddin Ifeanyi
The suffering of Venezuelans are real, and a quick fix to the country’s problem is Inviting the military as part of the solutions to these problems raises the important question of whether a democracy is better midwifed by a violent assault on the state, however, illegitimate that state is? The…
Growing the Share of Revenue Government Collects As Taxes, By Uddin Ifeanyi
At 35 per cent, our company income tax rate is one of the highest in the world. But a slew of exemptions, waivers, and holidays meant that last year, the effective income tax paid by companies operating in the country was, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), just 6…
Intervention Schemes and the Nigerian Poor, By Uddin Ifeanyi
Whatever their merits, none of these discussions (especially the new ones) around how best to structure poverty intervention programmes will make the grade in our space until we have solved the problem of who is a Nigerian! The “poor and vulnerable”! I doubt if there is a more clichéd phrase…
On The IMF’s Policy Prescriptions, By Uddin Ifeanyi
Chances are that this time next year, we’d be treading the IMF’s baseline scenario. For, of course, every Nigerian knows that these people from the Fund have never wished us well. While our governments, on the other hand, have never stopped plighting their troth to the long-term needs of our…
Education Does Matter, By Uddin Ifeanyi
If, then, we are to drive productivity increases in the other sectors of the economy — a little over 40 of them on the last count, we would need to produce enough graduates for this purpose. However, every time the conversation gets to the part of resourcing labour for the…
The CBN Drops Its Benchmark Rate By 50bps, And So What?, By Uddin Ifeanyi
...for an economy in the dire straits that ours is in, and in need of all the help it can get, opacity in its management is a borderline crime. Not just does it make planning by domestic entities impossible. It conceals the lack of competence of managers of the economy…
Lessons From The Last General Elections, By Uddin Ifeanyi
One of the many unsavoury conclusions from the last general elections describes how little is the progress we have made since our last collective visit to the polls. In 2015, card readers were simultaneously the “killer application”, designed to take our democracy to the next level and the bête noire…
