Nigeria economy needs divine intervention to survive 2023 — Gbenga Adeoye
Usually, when a car is about to break down, certain signs will be seen by the owner and over time it gets worse if repairs are not carried out on time
Listed below are the dangerous signs:
Students who paid School fees and have been debited and now being deported because CBN could not fund the settlement.Big manufacturers who largely depend on imported materials, are in serious need of Forex, but after their Naira have been taken by Commercial Banks and sent to CBN, for months, Telex has value as recipient are not getting their money.
Most LC Applications and Forex Bids are just mere papers resting on the table in Banks.
Most Bank workers in LC foreign operations will be laid off in 2023.
In a short while, if you need anything overseas, you will have to go get your dollar outside the banks and to avoid problem, you will now have to carry your dollar Cash and enter the aircraft with it or else your money will not get to the recipient because CBN may not be able to honour the settlement.
Most brilliant young men and women have migrated from Doctors to Nurses, IT guys and now Teachers will join them. Estate Valuers, Accountants, Lawyers and several professionals are migrating in large numbers Very dangerous.
Commercial Banks no longer get Forex for Form A. Students are now going to be deported because their payment did not get to their schools. Medical Treatment and in deed all those essential needs are no more beneficiary of Forex. What a terrible situation. CBN, where is our dollar? Nothing in Foreign reserve to settle obligations again?
What is most surprising is that the newly painted notes which is called newly redesigned Naira notes are not available in Commercial Banks.
Customers still get paid with old notes even after December 15, Something is wrong somewhere. Stamp Duty money is said to have disappeared to some pockets… Different stories every day. Somehow you almost want to put a bet to it that those news are untrue… Because how do you explain that Nigeria’s 5 years budget has gone to the hands of few guys… Even now I still doubt what I read here and there.
How did we get here.? A big question yet without an immediate answer.
SOLUTIONS AND EFFECTS
Only what is produced in Nigeria will then be available.
We must then work out on those skills that will enable us to do almost everything here like China did.
We may suffer for like a decade like CUBA and continue to ride old cars and so on but over time, things will improve.
Billionaires in Naira may not even be able to import things through Banks as Dollar will not be available in 2023.
Dollar demand in the parallel market will go to the roof as almost every Importation will depend on black market. Dollar may go to N1,000 in January, later to N1,500.
Tax Compliance drive will be stronger than ever before in 2023, but FIRS must be careful to avoid too much pressure on those paying already and rather work hard to widen the tax net.
Exemption from Tax based on less than 25m threshold turnover will likely end as we may be losing a lot more from small companies in view of the fact that many big manufacturers will face tough times with difficulty in getting Forex to buy imported raw materials, and they may begin to close certain lines and relocate them to more stable forex arena in Africa.
Most Airlines will stop their Nigerian route as many have stopped already because they could not get Forex to take back their proceeds. It means a time will come that you will need foreign exchange to even buy ticket… As I heard some airlines no longer accept Naira even now. Another boom for those in forex market. Dangerous as dollar will keep rising as predicted in item 4 above.
Conclusion and recommendations
We need all Professionals to sit together to solve our problems.
Like one of my elder Brother said in Abeokuta, “when elections are contested and won, the government belongs to everybody” and to that extent I will recommend Government of National Unity from all the seven major parties. APC, PDP, LABOUR, NNPP, SDP, ADC & APGA.
We all must join hands to work together to find solution to our problems. 2023 requires patriotism and not political fights.
Some guys that have been in government since 1999 have information about where our dollars are kept and those who stole them. They even know where the accounts are.
We don’t need to spend money on litigations… All we need to do is to begin to take over those money and bring them back to our foreign reserve account, so we can at least have a new Nigeria.
We understand that the kind of money in the hands of some people is so much that if they wage war against Nigeria; they may win.
Some people have enough money in dollars and pounds kept offshore that is enough to even rebuild all our Schools and set up an airline that is a National Carrier like Nigeria Airways or Air Nigeria.
Yes we need all those dollars. There is no need for stressing our judges and prison budget… all we need to do is to get as much as we can get so as to kick the country going and get it back on track.
Then we must speed up our development in the areas of Roads, Rail lines, Hospitals, Technical Schools, University, ICT, reduction in numbers of subject in primary and secondary School with focus on career paths. We must end lending rate of 35 per cent and have interest rate to be a maximum of 15 per cent if really want the real sector growth.
Divine intervention in my view also implies that men and women with integrity, character and intelligence will join hands together under God to work for the good of the country. Men who understand that they do not need billions to have food and raiment. Men who place value on hard work than pleasure. We must all join the next cabinet regardless of whoever wins the election and whichever party we belong to Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo and indeed all the tribes and ethnic nationalities must come together to deliver our country from the danger that is ahead.
We all know the seven Parties, and we know the three strong ones and so it must not be personal or party interest anymore but rather National Interest.
God bless Nigeria and may God raise men that will fight for the country economically in 2023.
The Author, Dr. Gbenga Adeoye is a Lawyer and a Chartered Accountant with PhD in Management Accounting.
He also holds an M.Sc. in Banking and Finance.
He can be reached via [email protected]
Adeoye is an alumnus of University of London where he studied International Business Law for LLM.
He is also an Alumnus of Harvard Business School Executive Education on Innovation and Building New Business in Established Organizations being part of 3 Nigerians in the 2011 set.
Adeoye is equally a member of Egba Economic Summit Group and Nigerian Economic Summit Group in the Tax & Fiscal Policy Department.
He believes that National Development is a function of the Quality of those in leadership.
