Welfare Of Nigerians More Important Than GDP Growth, CPPE Tells FG

The Chief Executive Officer of the Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprises, Dr Muda Yusuf, has said that positive growth in Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product should be reflected in the lives of citizens who are suffering economic hardship.

Yusuf also enjoined policy makers to “prioritize key development indicators like worsening poverty , inflation and currency depreciation.”

He said these in a statement issued on Sunday in response to the GDP numbers released by the National Bureau of Statistics last week.

Nigeria’s economy grew by 3.4 per cent in the full year of 2021, reflecting the highest yearly growth since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed power in 2015.

Both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had predicted that the Nigerian economy will grow by 2.6 per cnet and 2.7 per cent respectively.

But the actual figures grew beyond the prediction of the multilateral institutions.

The CPPE CEO said, “The last few years were characterized by worsening poverty, high inflationary pressures, massive erosion of purchasing power, high energy prices, escalating production cost, sharp currency depreciation and many more.”

Nigeria’s currency trades at N575 against the dollar in the parallel market and N416.37 at the official rate.

Inflation is currently above single digit at 15.6 per cent as of January 2022, while unemployment is over 33 per cent, according to official data.

The statement added, “These are critical developmental metrics on the basis of which the performance of the economy should also be measured. Therefore, going forward, policy makers should prioritize these key development indicators.

“Citizens welfare and investment productivity in the economy matter even more than the GDP numbers.”