Tinubu’s Reforms Perform Well At Macroeconomic Level – Okechukwu

An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Osita Okechukwu, has admitted that President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms have done little to ease the hardship facing ordinary Nigerians, despite recording gains at the macroeconomic level.

Okechukwu said Nigerians were still struggling with high prices, poor purchasing power and unemployment, adding that small and medium-sized businesses were also finding it difficult to survive.

He made the remarks during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Tuesday, Naija News reports.

The APC founding member said the figures used to assess the wider economy might show some progress, but the situation remained difficult for people trying to meet their daily needs.

He also faulted the impact of the naira’s devaluation on businesses, explaining that many small and medium-sized enterprises could no longer import machinery as easily as before.

According to him, rising energy costs have made matters worse for businesses already battling high operating expenses.

“The economic reforms have done well at the macroeconomic level, but microeconomic indicators are very poor,” Okechukwu said.

He added that the reforms had not delivered the expected relief to Nigerians dealing with the rising cost of living and lack of jobs.

“When we talk about the purchasing power of the citizenry, the high cost of living and joblessness, the president’s economic reform programme has not helped,” he said.

Okechukwu explained that the reforms were expected to encourage private businesses to grow and create jobs. However, he said the conditions needed for that growth were still lacking.

He noted that the floating of the naira had made it harder for businesses to pay for imported machinery, while the cost of energy continued to put pressure on local industries.

“It didn’t help because the assumption in the neoliberal doctrine is that it will propel the private sector. However, there are indicators inhibiting that growth. Small-scale and medium-scale industries are performing poorly,” he said.

“When you float the naira, it becomes difficult for them to import machinery, and rising energy costs make it even more difficult. These are tangential to the reform programme,” Okechukwu added.