A financial analyst, Mr Okechukwu Unegbu, has urged the Federal Government to support local manufacturers in order to mitigate the country’s deficit trade.
Unegbu, a former President Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.
According to him, investing in and giving more policy support to local manufacturers will enable them bridge the trade deficit.
“Issuing economic-friendly policies will encourage domestic manufacturers to produce substituted imported produce.
“The country will begin to become self-reliance and this will check the trade deficit it’s known for,” he said.
He said the Federal Government should give extraordinary support to the private sector operators engaged in establishing petroleum refineries in the country.
“Having more petroleum refineries is key because it will enhance our refined capacity and reverse imports.
“Then the country can attain self-sufficiency and conserve its scarce resources,” he said.
He stressed that the Federal Government must ensure that local producers operate at optimal levels in the country.
Unegbu also suggested that policy drivers should organise an economic think tank group that would recommend innovations that would enable us to become an export hub.
“The authorities should bring our best brains together for solutions that could be implemented to enable our country to become prosperous.
“Our nation has the materials and the human ingenuity to ensure it happens in no distant time,” he said.
He noted that our people must learn to patronise indigenous products so as to grow the economy and reduce imports.
NAN reports the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said recently that the country’s trade balance in the third quarter (Q3) amounted to a deficit of N3.02 billion.
“Nigeria trade balance in Q3 2021 amounted to a deficit of N3,023.50 billion showing an increase of 26.53 per cent year on year resulting from a continued increase in imports,” it said.
Categorising the imported goods, the report said that the value of total imports stood at N8,153.79 billion in Q3 2021 and was 17.32 per cent higher than Q2 2021 and 51.47 per cent higher than Q3 2020.
“The value of imported agricultural goods was 21.01 per cent higher than the value recorded in Q2, 2021 and 56.74 per cent higher than Q3 2020,” said NBS.
International trade is an exchange or trade of goods between different nations which cut across international borders or territories. (NAN)
