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Tag: Soludo

  • Buhari scraps Economic Management Team, appoints Soludo, Rewane, others into new Economic Council

    Buhari scraps Economic Management Team, appoints Soludo, Rewane, others into new Economic Council

    President Muhammadu Buhari has dissolved the Economic Management Team (EMT) and in its place constituted an Economic Advisory Council (EAC) that will report directly to him.

    Recall The Economic Management Team (EMT) was chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and has the following members

    The following are members of the new council, according to a statement by Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina.

    1. Prof. Doyin Salami – Chairman

    2. Dr. Mohammed Sagagi – Vice-Chairman

    3. Prof. Ode Ojowu – Member

    4. Dr. Shehu Yahaya – Member

    5. Dr. Iyabo Masha – Member

    6. Prof. Chukwuma Soludo – Member

    7. Mr. Bismark Rewane – Member

    8. Dr. Mohammed Adaya Salisu – Secretary (Senior Special Assistant to the President, Development Policy).

    “This advisory council will replace the current Economic Management Team (EMT) and will be reporting directly to the President.

    “The Economic Advisory Council (EAC) will advise the President on economic policy matters, including fiscal analysis, economic growth and a range of internal and global economic issues working with the relevant cabinet members and heads of monetary and fiscal agencies.

    “The EAC will have monthly technical sessions as well as scheduled quarterly meetings with the President. The Chairman may, however, request for unscheduled meetings if the need arises,” the statement said.

  • APGA will rule Anambra for 50 years – Soludo

    The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, on Saturday said the All Progressive Grand Alliance would Anambra for 50 years.

    Soludo said this on Saturday at Umunze, Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State, during the inauguration of Obiano’s re-election campaign committee in the area.

    He said, “APGA will rule Anambra State for 50 years during which time Anambra would have become one of the best economies in Africa. I can see the indices of modern economic development being put in place by the Obiano government. His agricultural transformation is unique.

    “I urge our people to vote for Obiano again so that he can sustain what I’m seeing in this state. After Obiano, I see a continuation of APGA government in this state for up to 50 years because, for the past 11 years, APGA has done marvelously well in this state. I don’t see a change of loyalty soon.”

  • Stop playing politics with exchange rate, Soludo warns FG, CBN

    A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo has warned the Federal Government and Central Bank of Nigeria to stop playing politics with the nation’s exchange rate to strengthen the Naira.

    Soludo noted that the apex bank’s official exchange rate of N306 to the dollar has become redundant, describing it as an instrument for rent seekers and arbitrary allocation of scarce foreign exchange in the country.

    As a result, he said the CBN must achieve a unified market-determined exchange rate by eliminating the current multiple exchange rates as a matter of urgency.

    Soludo spoke in a keynote address at the eight annual Pan-Africa Investor Conference organised by Renaissance Capital, an international investment bank, in Lagos on Wednesday.

    He said, “The general price level has already adjusted because that’s the primary price indicator in the market. The prices that people hear, i.e. the exchange rate that people talk about is the parallel market rate. Anybody who says it is irrelevant is not discussing Nigeria as an economy. The official one is like the time when you had the price control regime.

    “Even those who had accessed forex at the official rate, when they are fixing their prices, they are fixing their prices in comparison with the imported ones, which are taking signals from the parallel market rate. So the general price level has adjusted there. The official exchange rate is redundant; it is just for rent and for arbitrary allocations.”

    Soludo also advised the CBN to dump its current import substitution policy and adopt an export-oriented industrial strategy if it hoped to take Nigeria out of its present economic woes.

    According to him, the country is implementing import substitution is a crude way and it must remove the ban placed on importers of some 41 items from accessing dollars at the official interbank foreign exchange window.

    The former CBN governor said, “Every regime comes to ban and the next unbans it. That is not the way to protect an economy. If you have a market-determined exchange rate regime and you do not want certain items, you put tariffs. The exchange rate plus the tariffs will make, for instance, the imported tomatoes uneconomical.

    “That is where you deal with it on a sustainable basis. There is a need to think of a life beyond crude oil. We need not just import substitution; we need infrastructure and export-oriented industrialisation strategy. We cannot do that with this kind of crude inward look.”

    According to Soludo, China has over one billion population and has become a successful country through export-oriented industrialisation, adding, “China was not doing import substitution.”

    “That’s why they have built trillions of dollars in foreign reserves with weak currency that makes import into their country expensive and makes exporting very rewarding,” he added.

    The former CBN governor said many companies that needed some of the 41 items had folded up and that thousands of jobs had been lost.

    “Yet there is a better, sound, transparent and sustainable way of achieving what you intend to achieve. To create prosperity for all and lift millions out of the job market, we need industrialisation; we need to be exporting. We must fix the infrastructure,” he added.

    Soludo also said that Nigeria’s public finance was broken because the country’s total expenditure was in excess of its total revenue.

    He said, “In a regime where you have the total recurrent expenditure in excess of your total revenue, there is an issue. You know people talk about recurrent expenditure being 70 per cent of the budget; they are including the debt. As a percentage of your total revenue, you recurrent expenditure is a hundred and something per cent, which means as it is today, part of our borrowing is actually to finance recurrent expenditure.”

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Soludo was governor of Central Bank from 29 May 2004 – 29 May 2009.

  • Eliminate multiple exchange rates, invest in non-oil economy – Soludo charges FG, CBN

    A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, on Monday advised the Federal Government to start working towards getting the nation structured and re-engineered towards a non-oil economy.

    Soludo also charged the leadership of the apex bank to finally eliminate the discrepancies in the country’s forex regime and reduce the wide spread difference between the official and parallel market exchange rates of the naira to a maximum of three to five per cent.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the currency currently has over five exchange rates.

    Soludo revealed this while fielding questions from journalists at an event organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN. He was the Chairman of the Economic Discourse for the event.

    He pointed out that policymakers were expected to be taking bold steps that would navigate the country away from crude oil dependency to a non-oil economy on the long run.

    Soludo commended steps taken by the CBN in the last few weeks to restructure the foreign exchange market, but stressed that there was still a long way to go to get the economic back on track.

    The former CBN governor stated, “With regards to exchange rate, I can see quite some changes in the last few weeks. I think some steps are beginning to be taken, but it is still quite a long way to go to get to a stable and predictable level that eliminates the premium among the multiplicity of exchange rates.

    “Nigeria must get out of multiple exchange rates and we must eliminate the premium, get it back on track at a competitive exchange rate regime. The uncertainty that is created by that is so enormous; and with the oil price rising and with the increase in oil earnings, this is the time to take bold steps and do the needful.”

    On how policymakers can eliminate the multiple exchange rates and close the gap, Soludo said it was simple because the nation had done it before.

    He said, “On bold steps, the template is not too far. We have done it before and it is just going back to it. If it (the template) is not broken, why mend it? Get back and eliminate the multiple exchange rate regime, eliminate the premium, or at least significantly reduce it to not more than between three to maximum of five per cent premium between the parallel and official exchange rates.

    “On what it takes to do it, that is basically known. Get the public finance okay; I can tell you that with the momentum of what is going on in the rest of the world, by the end of this year, we should actually be having stocks of reserves in the range of about $50bn or $60bn.”

    According to Soludo, getting the country out of the current economic recession is no big deal as bringing it back to growth.

    He said in spite of government policies, the country would come out of the current recession.

    He stated, “And getting Nigeria structured and re-engineered towards non-oil economy, that again will require a lot more serious work. The recession is not the issue. We will get out of it in spite of government policy.

    “I think this is a time Nigeria should actually be making hard decisions to transit away from an oil revenue economy. And that’s the serious work.”

    Earlier, the ICAN President, Mr. Titus Soetan, had said that years of neglect and mismanagement had brought the country to its present parlous state.

    Highlighting the purpose of the ICAN Economic Discourse, he said, “We took a stance that the challenges confronting us needed to be identified and articulated so that short, medium and long-term solutions could be found for them.

    “This is what we sought out to do by inviting experts in various fields to this discourse. We need to hear from people who have the knowledge and expertise and who can share their wealth of experience on how to move on economically as a nation in view of the urgent need to reinvent the economic wheel of the Nigerian economy.”

  • I am not in APC, no plans to contest its governorship ticket – Soludo clears air

    Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has dismissed reports that he is contesting the forthcoming Anambra governorship election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Soludo noted that he was not a member of the APC and could not be contesting for its party’s governorship ticket.

    TheNewsGuru.com recalls that the state chairman of the party, Mr. Emeka Ibe, yesterday claimed that Soludo was among the contenders for the party’s nomination for the Anambra governorship election.

    “We just discovered that Prof Soludo has not registered as a member of our party in his ward. And you know the journey begins from the ward,” he was quoted as saying.

    “He is a big friend of us and a big friend to the APC Federal Government, but he must first register at his ward level before any other thing.

    “For Mrs Uche Ekwunife, we just discovered that she might not want to run for this year’s governorship in the state.

    “For these reasons we have decided to drop their names from the list of the governorship aspirants in the forthcoming election in the state on the platform of our party”, he added.

    But Soludo, who expressed surprise at the APC’s claim, said he had received several calls, texts and emails seeking clarification on the matter since appearance of the said publications.

    “I also sought and obtained the phone number of the said state chairman and spoke to him in order to ascertain the veracity of the story,” he said in a statement yesterday.

    “I wish to clarify that I am not a member of the APC and could therefore not be contesting for its party nomination”, he declared.

    TheNewsGuru.com recalls that Soludo was governor of the CBN from 29 May 2004 – 29 May 2009.

  • Soludo, Ubah, others jostle for Anambra governorship seat

    A former CBN Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo and twelve other aspirants have indicated interest to contest for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket in the forthcoming Anambra governorship election.

    Mr Emeka Ibe, Chairman of the party in the state, made this known to newsmen on Tuesday in Awka.

    He stressed that there would be no automatic ticket for any aspirant, adding that they would all participate in the state`s primaries to emerge as candidate for the election.

    “We will give all aspirants equal playing ground. There is no special interest in any aspirant.

    “We will hold transparent primaries for them because they are all qualified to unseat Governor Willie Obiano.

    “Any of them who emerges as our candidate in the state is capable of removing Obiano from office,’’ Ibe said.

    He added that the party would embark on continuous membership registration exercise before the end of the month to accommodate those who want to join in the state.

    Ibe, however, said that anybody with criminal records would not be allowed to join the party in the state.

    He maintained that there was no zoning arrangement in the party, adding that new members would have equal rights as old ones.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that others, who indicated interest to contest the APC ticket include: Chief George Muoghalu, Chief Barth Nwibe, Mr Obinna Okonkwo and Chief Paul Chukwuma.

    Others are Dr Chike Obidigbo, Chief Raph Okeke, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, Chief Tony Nwoye, Sen. Uche Ekwunife, Sen. Andy Ubah, Chief Obinna Uzor and Prince Donatus Okonkwo.