The Coordinating Minster of Finance has come under some flak from the opposition and analysts for the current currency debacle and economic crisis Nigeria is facing.
Fairly or unfairly many have blamed her for not doing enough to prepare adequately for what many think was an imminent fall in the price of oil. But none other than this article in the Guardian was more scathing in its criticism. The writer even doesn’t spare others such as the Minster of Agriculture and his counterpart in the Trade Ministry. Here is an excerpt of the article.
Currently, unemployment rate hovers around 30 per cent and the external debt burden, which Ngozi had lifted in her first outing under Obasanjo has resettled and weighs about $10 billion by one estimate. The naira is almost at an all time low. Cost of funds is prohibitive, causing the real sector to starve to coma. Business in Nigeria is now all about buying and selling imported stuff or creating domestic markets for factories in Southeast Asia. Non-oil Exports is fast becoming a vanishing concept in Nigeria’s macroeconomics.
This is precisely where we are with Okonjo-Iwealanomics even as we hope for a better tomorrow, unfortunately, with the same set of variables
You can get the full article in the Guardian