Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013
Lately, the Federal Government’s enthusiasm for further national debt accumulation has become more strident, especially after the IMF’s suggestion that Nigeria is currently under-borrowed, and therefore recommended increasing borrowing threshold of 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, to about 56 per cent of GDP....
Wednesday, March 13th, 2013
LES LEBA, 0817 002 3569, lesleba@gmail.com, lesleba@swiftng.com, lesleba@lesleba.com, www.lesleba.com Lately, the Central Bank of Nigeria, in a two-page Press Release, laboured to corroborate the Finance Ministry’s earlier clarifications on “the meaning, structure and management of the nation’s foreign reserves”. CBN appropriately defined external reserves as external...
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
Our governments have spent billions of naira over time to promote a positive image for Nigerians everywhere. Regrettably, the popular perception of the Nigerian character remains that of greed, self-interest and other such antisocial escapades. The promoted brand of “Good People, Great Nation” never really...
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
The recognition of the current abysmal depth of corruption in public office is probably shared by discerning citizens of this country;
Wednesday, February 6th, 2013
Public discourse recently focused on the charge by Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili (Oby), a former Senior Assistant and Minister in Ex-President Obasanjo’s administration, that the Yar’Adua/Jonathan Presidency had frittered away accumulated
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
The Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, declared at a recent meeting of Governors of Central Banks of the West African Monetary Zone in Abuja recently that our reserves have risen to about $44.6bn.
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
The anniversary of the 2012 “Occupy Nigeria” fuel subsidy protest was marked recently in Lagos by the Pastor Bakare-led ‘Save Nigeria Group’ with a lecture titled “Nigeria’s Fiscal and Monetary Crisis: the Way Forward”.
Wednesday, January 16th, 2013
Every year, Nigeria’s media traditionally celebrate persons adjudged to have distinguished themselves in their respective fields of endeavour or indeed, in their apparent dedication and commitment to their responsibilities as public servants; it is not unusual
Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
In successful economies, budgets are usually laid before the respective national parliaments many months before the commencement of the New Year to provide the lawmakers with adequate time to
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013
At the conclusion of the 2012 IMF/World Bank Group Annual Meetings in October, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, decried the dollarisation of the Nigerian economy. According to Sanusi, who spoke to some Nigerian journalists who were sponsored to that
Wednesday, December 19th, 2012
The other day, a friend narrated a story, which I found stranger than fiction; the story related to the travails of a family who lost a successful and illustrious breadwinner, who, incidentally, died without a Will. The family’s elders were consequently entrusted with the...
Wednesday, December 12th, 2012
The primary underlying principle of a social contract in a modern democratic dispensation is that of equality of all persons.
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012
At the Second Annual Capital Market Retreat in Warri, the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Lamido Sanusi, made a strong case against the current dedication of about 70 per cent of the nation’s income to purely consumption by civil servants and politicians,
Wednesday, November 28th, 2012
The other day, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry was reported to have decried the retention of the Monetary Policy Rate at 12 per cent by Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee as “ill-advised and insensitive”.
Wednesday, November 21st, 2012
The debate on the appropriate crude oil price benchmark for the 2013 budget has lately attracted numerous interests in the National Assembly as well as in the media. The government’s Economic Management Team (EMT) has stoutly defended the
