Although the 2024 budget may be new and ambitious, the old unrelenting challenges may conspire to ensure the reality of the average Nigerian, who care more about the decrease in food prices remains a mirage, said Bismarck Rewane, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Limited.
The federal government recently presented the N27.5 trillion 2024 budget proposal to a joint session of the 10th National Assembly in Abuja.
“The proposed budget hopes to achieve job-rich economic growth (3.76%), price stability (inflation: 21.4 per cent, exchange rate: N750/$ per cent), a better investment environment, and poverty reduction.
“However, these ambitious budget numbers are anything but close to the reality of the average Nigerian, who cares less about budgetary arithmetic if the prices of major staples like bread and rice don’t decrease,” said Rewane in the current FDC Wispers made available to Blueprint.
He said, of all the challenges Nigeria faces, the naira’s steep depreciation is the most problematic, as the official exchange rate is down 59.4 per cent to N1,137/$ Year-to-Date (YTD), falling short of the proposed Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and FGN target of N750/$.
Rewane said, the third quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a pointer of things to come.
“Meanwhile, in the third quarter of 20’23, the Nigerian economy grew modestly to 2.54 per cent from 2.51 per cent in the second quarter of 2023, despite the high inflation and tough operating,” he said.
