Buhari should look beyond Nigeria exiting recession – LCCI DG, Yusuf

The Director-General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to look beyond Nigeria’s exit from recession and take into consideration other important factors that could impact on the private sector performance and on the welfare on the people.
He noted that the growth in the GDP could not on its own lead to direct impact on citizens

According to him, although the exit from recession is a signal that the country is growing, the federal government also needed to address investment environment issues such as power, transportation, cost of funds, foreign exchange management, tax and trade policies.
Yusuf, who stated this in Lagos during an interview with journalists yesterday, called for policies that would truly align the country for sustainability of the growth.
He said: “It is very good that we have a situation where we are out of recession. It is one thing to be out of recession and another thing for both the investors and citizens to feel the impact.
“President Muhammadu Buhari needs to look beyond getting out of recession and take into consideration other important factors that could impact on the private sector performance and on the welfare on the people.

“This is because the GDP numbers on its own will not bring about this kind of impact.”
Yusuf added that those policies needed to be truly aligned and be reviewed to ensure the sustainability of the recovery the nation was now experiencing.
He said that there was also an urgent need to address the situation of high cost of goods and services since there had not been increase in incomes to cushion the effect on the citizens.
“For individuals, we need to look at what will improve the citizens’ welfare because the GDP on its own cannot bring about the improvement and may not directly impact on the people.

“It is important that the government looks at policies that can directly impact on the welfare of citizens, especially on the cost of food, health care, transportation and education.
“So, beyond the technical exist from recession, we have to look at policies such the foreign exchange policy, interest rate policy, trade policy, investment policy and tax policy.

“We need to get all these right to ensure we sustain the current exit,” the LCCI boss said.