Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, says the federal government will make more pronouncements on how it intends to reposition the economy and make it vibrant for business in the coming weeks.
Shettima made this known Wednesday during a courtesy visit to his office by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Richard Montgomery at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Vice President in a statement signed by the Director, Information, Office of the Vice President, Olusola Abiola, underscored the need for economic reforms in order to position the country’s economy for growth especially with the removal of fuel subsidy.
According to him, This is just the beginning because it was fait accompli to withdraw the fuel subsidy. We either get rid of the fuel subsidy or the fuel subsidy get rid of the Nigerian nation.
“Most definitely, we are going to create an enabling environment for businesses to flourish in this country.”
The Vice President observed that in 2012, the federal government spent $10 billion on fuel subsidy alone.
“Last month, we were purportedly consuming 67 million litres per day, but after the removal of the subsidy it drops to 41 million bpd, nearly 40% off. So the whole subsidy regime was opaque, ridden with a lot of inconsistency,” he added.
Shettima noted that the previous multiple exchange rate regime with a lot of corruption brought about the proliferation of so many schemes.
He added, “So obviously we have no option but to collapse the exchange rate regimes into one. In the coming weeks and months, we are going to make more pronouncements on how to reposition the Nigerian economy and make it vibrant for business.”
On efforts to find a lasting solution to the security challenges in the country, Shettima was of the opinion that there was a need for both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches towards addressing the problems.
He noted, “Unless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition, you have to find kinetic and non-kinetic solutions to our problems. Yes, we have to strengthen our security architecture, so that we can be a stronger bargaining position with the insurrectionists; Boko Haram terrorists and kidnappers.”
The Vice President stressed that as part of the efforts of the Tinubu administration towards addressing on-going security problems, the federal government will soon roll out different socio-economic intervention programmes and initiatives in the North- East and North-West that will facilitate empowerment and social inclusion of the vulnerable groups in the regions.
He, therefore, called for stronger relations between Nigeria and the United Kingdom (UK) given the long standing historical antecedents, business activities and shared interests between the two countries.
Shettima noted, “I will urge you to facilitate the setting up of the Nigeria-UK Binational Commission; that Bi-national Commission can be the driver for accelerating enhanced business relationship between our two countries.”
“We need to ramp up the trade between our two nations taking into cognizance our proximity. There is no nation that we are closer to than the UK and our trade represents less than five per cent of the volume of our import and export.”
In his remarks, the British High Commissioner commended the new administration’s proactive economic policies, especially the reforms.
He lauded the long standing relationship and cooperation with Nigeria especially in areas of trade and investment, security and defence, digital technology, education.
He expressed the readiness of the UK government to partner closely with the Federal Government to achieve overall development of the country.