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Daily Parallel Market Exchange Rate – ₦470/$1
Prices of local rice, onions, tomatoes, others crash as foreign rice continues to ease off
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Columnists
Has the President erred in stopping CBN from funding food imports?
What implication does the President’s directive to the CBN hold for the economy?
The President of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, last week said, “I am restating it that nobody importing food or fertilizer should be given foreign exchange from the Central Bank. We will not pay a kobo of our foreign reserves to import food or fertilizer. We will instead empower local farmers and producers.”
Why is the president stopping the CBN from funding food imports? The answer is simple. The CBN Exchange rates are cheaper than autonomous sources. The CBN lists the exchange rate for the Dollar at $1 to N379, however the Naira is being sold on the parallel market at N440. Hence, importers prefer to access CBN funds to import, because it reduces the cost of those imports. In effect, at N379, the CBN is subsidizing those imports via a ‘strong Naira’
The President’s directive is thus in line with his new overall push to eliminate all subsidies especially subsidies funded by the scare US dollar. In this aspect, the President is simply seeking to protect the foreign reserves which are paying for other imports. So, he is right.
READ: CBN to set up $39.4 billion infrastructure development company with AFC, NSIA
Is this a wise strategy?
Nairametrics earlier reported on the NBS recently released report on Nigeria’s total spending, which indicated that about N22.7 trillion was spent on food in 2019. This is 56.7% of the total spending (N40.2 trillion) for that period.
Where does the food Nigerians eat come from? Clearly Nigeria has a large agricultural base, but a significant proportion of Nigeria’s food is imported, and the cost of those imports have risen, as the value of the Naira has depreciated in relation to the US dollar.
(READ MORE: Agrorite leading the fight against food insecurity using Agtech)
According to data from the NBS, Nigeria’s spending on food and drink importation increased from $2.9bn in 2015 to $4.1bn in 2017, but dipped in 2018.
Have these imports plus local production met local demand on a consistent basis? The answer is no. Take rice for instance, the BBC reports that, “Between 2015, when the foreign exchange restrictions for rice came into effect, and early 2017, the price of a 50kg bag of rice went from $24 to $82 and fell in mid-2017 to $34, but in June 2019, the price stood at $49.”
The law of supply in economics, states that when the price of a commodity increases, its supply also increases. Hence, there is a direct relationship between price and supply of a commodity. In other words, if the price of rice goes up, more suppliers will enter the market to supply rice.
READ: Naira devaluation would affect our profit margins – Flour Mills
However, In Nigeria, as the price of food is rising, the NBS in the latest Inflation report, says the composite food index rose by 15.48% in July 2020 compared to 15.18% in June 2020. This rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of Bread and cereals, Potatoes, Yam and other tubers, Meat, Fruits, Oils and fats, and Fish. (essentially everything). The NBS says, the average price of 1kg of rice (imported high quality sold loose) increased year-on-year by 37.72%.
So why has the supply of rice not risen to correspond with rise in prices? Well, because the supply of rice and other foodstuff have indeed risen, but the problem remains logistics processing & storage.
In Nigeria, you only eat corn during corn season, same with mangoes, and tomatoes. Prices fall during harvest, then rise after harvest. The problem is not just with the harvest, but getting that harvest to market, storing the excess, and processing its supplies all year round. Therefore, imports are needed to plug supply holes.
READ: CBN removes “third parties” from buying forex routed through Form M
Nigerians in 2019 alone spent N1.9trillion or 4.7% of their budget on rice alone. When the President banned food importers from getting the CBN dollar at N379; he simply pushed them to import rice at N440; a N61 difference that will be added to the cost of imports, and will fuel imported inflation.
Where the president got it wrong is trying to fix a local logistics problem with a foreign exchange fix.
READ: Official: Nigeria spends N1.2 billion only on imports of Arms and Ammunition
The solution is to go back to the various food supply value chains, de-risk and de-cost them. If food is cheap and plentiful, there will be no need for imports and inflation will fall.
Columnists
Nigeria’s high recurrent costs, low revenue and escalating debt numbers
Nigeria continues to face issues of poor revenue generation and a lack of will to efficiently manage its expenditure.
In the recently released Q3 2020 debt report by the National Bureau of Statistics, the total public debt was N32.22trn as of 30 September 2020, with local debt making up 62.18% of the total public debt in the period while external debt made up 37.82%.
This is similar to the country’s debt structure in the same period of 2019 when domestic debt made up 68.45% of total public debt and external debt made up 31.55%. Whilst debt to GDP ratio remains within the acceptable threshold, we are increasingly concerned about the nation’s ballooning debt service to revenue ratio.
READ: U.S. budget suffers a deficit of $3.1 trillion in 2020, as pandemic slams the economy
Recall that the Federal Government of Nigeria following a series of revisions to the 2020 appropriation bill arrived at a fiscal deficit of N4.98trn. Based on the finance ministry data, an aggregation of debt monetization (N2.86trn) and New borrowings (N3.28trn) was used to finance the deficit.
READ: Heads of defaulting revenue generating agencies will be severely sanctioned – Buhari
The 2021 appropriation bill forecasts a budget deficit of N5.60tn which would be financed mainly by borrowings of N4.69tn, privatization proceeds of N205.15bn and project linked bilateral & multilateral loans of N709.69bn. The country’s financing structure is of concern when one considers that the budget is tilted more towards recurrent expenditure than capital expenditure and raises questions on the sustainability of the current fiscal practices.
READ: FG directs the suspension of NIMC staff involved in extortion of NIN applicants
The significantly higher recurrent component of the budget continues to drag the country’s economic growth, resulting in poor infrastructural development. Spending more on capital projects can promote industrialization, improve local purchasing power and help the federal government’s diversification drive.
READ: NEM Insurance CEO/MD purchases 4 million additional shares worth N9.2 million
Nigeria continues to face issues of poor revenue generation and lack of will to efficiently manage its expenditure. No significant cuts have been made to its overheads and statutory spending has continued to rise. Nigeria’s growing debt stock with little to show for it in terms of capital expenditure remains a major concern.
READ: Nigeria’s total public debt stock increased by N2.381 trillion in 3 months
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Columnists
How Africa’s youth contribute to the African society
The growth of technology has created an opportunity for several African youths to come up with new innovations.
Africa has been called a lot of names – dark continent, the savage, the continent of Safaris, third world, emerging market continent and more recently, Sh**hole, but it is hardly called the Continent of Youths.
It is not a secret that the youths are the future of the African continent. They are already emerging and will be the next thought leaders, creators and innovators that will help galvanize the African continent to greater heights.
According to the United Nations in 2015, Africa has 226 million youth aged 15-24 and one-fifth of the world’s youth population. This means that one out of every five youth on earth is from Africa. The African Youth population is forecasted to grow by 42% by 2030. There should be a new focus on the youth in Africa, as we examine how much they contribute currently to the continent.
One area where youth are thriving well in Africa is in the tech sector. The sector has become an interesting source of Foreign Direct Investments and in 2019 accounted for close to half a billion-dollar raked into the continent. In 2020, – the Paystack/Stripes deal brought in about 200 million dollars. The growth of technology has created an opportunity for several African youths to come up with new innovations, which are even more helpful in the current fledging economic and social climate affected by the pandemic.
There are several examples of many African youths using technology to start new ventures. Mike Endale, an Ethiopian American based in Washington, D.C, who is the principal at BLEN Corp, an information technology firm that leads the Ethiopia COVID-19 Emergency Tech Volunteer Task Team and assists Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health. During the pandemic, they have recruited over 1,700 software engineers and have even created an Africa COVID-19 response toolkit.
Temie Giwa-Tubosun, the founder of LifeBank in Nigeria, is another African youth making strides in the tech scene. Since its establishment in 2016, it helps to deliver 22,830 units of blood, according to Next Billion, to hospitals in Nigeria, which help connect donors to blood banks. Next Billion also stated that LifeBank conducts drive through COVID-19 testing and supply oxygen to health centers. The Lifebank recently expanded in East Africa. In December 20280, the US- Africa Business Center of the US Chamber in conjunction with the American Business Council Nigeria in recognition of the great impact of start-ups in the wake of the Pandemic, inaugurated a digital entrepreneurship competition.
African youths are also thriving in the entertainment sector, particularly in the music business. The Afrobeats genre continues to rule the music world and the likes of Burna Boy, Davido, Mr. Eazi and Omah Lay, who are still in their 20’s, spearhead and remain the face of the genre. The international recognition of Afrobeats has given artists more visibility on the global forefront. This was the case for Davido, Mr. Eazi and Tiwa Savage, who were featured on the cover of the Billboard magazine. Music remains of significant importance and the youths are a big factor to the success of the industry.
In Nigeria, the music revenue grew from $26 million in 2014 to $34 million dollars in 2018, according to Statista. The music revenue in Nigeria is expected to increase to $44 million by 2023 as reported by Statista.
Africa’s youth are also flying high in the area of sports, particularly in soccer. Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Ihenacho of Nigeria (both players at Leicester City in the English Premier League) come to mind. Also, Percy Tau, a South African soccer player, who was with R.S.C Anderlecht in Belgium, will now be returning to his parent club, Brighton & Hove Albion in the premier league. Tau plays in a forward position and he is expected to make his debut for the seagulls (Brighton & Hove Albion) in the 2020-21 season of the premier league.
Lastly, youths in Africa have also been influential on the activism forefront, especially in the last couple of years. This was evident in October of 2020, when several Nigerian youths took to the streets to fight against police brutality in the End SARS protests. In Uganda, Musicians like Bobi Wine’s foray into Politics first as a parliamentarian and presidential candidate is attracting more youth to get into politics.
Other youths like Christelle Kwizera, founder of Water Access Rwanda, have been involved in helping communities with access to water. According to Global Citizen, Kwizera’s plan is to eradicate water scarcity and to provide clean water for people in local communities. Currently, her organization has supplied 70,000 people in Rwanda with clean water. Kwizera’s efforts earned her the Cisco Youth Leadership Award at the 2020 Global Citizen Prize.
African youths definitely have a lot to offer in several sectors and this would be vital to the growth of the continent. African governments need to understand this and invest meaningfully and in a sustainable way on the youth population to reduce the migration drain.
The enthusiasm, the work rate, and efforts are why the current children of Africa have an opportunity to be wonderful leaders of tomorrow. With the right nurturing environment in place, Africa’s future is in safe hands.
Written by Paul Olele
Columnists
World Bank’s global outlook amid COVID-19 surge
The World Bank’s projection for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to grow by 2.7%, while the expected growth for Nigeria is set at 1.1% in 2021.
Recently, the World Bank published its January 2021 global economic prospects. The bank expects global growth to expand by 4% in 2021 from an estimated 4.3% contraction in 2020.
In the report, the World Bank expressed concerns about the recovery phase of many economies, especially the emerging and developing economies except policymakers can put in place robust and comprehensive policy framework to improve the existing frail business and economic environment caused by the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic.
The bank’s growth projection for advanced economies (AEs) and emerging & developing economies (EMDEs) including China was 3.3% and 5.0% in 2021 respectively. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to grow by 2.7%, while the expected growth for Nigeria is set at 1.1% in 2021.
The World Bank appears less optimistic about the growth prospects across the globe including Nigeria as many countries are enfeebled as a result of the ripple effect of the pandemic causing elevated debt levels, rising unemployment and with the new strain of Covid-19 in many countries resulting in renewed lockdowns and restrictions, growth estimates may not be met. The bank stresses that quicker vaccination process across the world would aid faster economic growth which could step up to 5%, while a possible delay in rollout of vaccines amid rising infections could hamper growth expansion to 1.6% in 2021.
The prospect of quick vaccination appears a little bleak to us at this time. To give perspective, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) a few days ago, only 6.7 million Americans had received at least the first dose of the vaccine and that is roughly 2% of America’s population in 2 months.
The bank extended its weakened optimism to Nigeria as the country faces severe pressures from dwindling oil revenues, weak private investments, eroding consumer spending power and declining foreign investor participation.
In our opinion, restoring the economy to the path of sustainable growth requires government’s conscious efforts in addressing structural challenges impeding growth in the economy.
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