2014 budget: Economists want focus on power, education

Some economists have advised the Federal Government to focus on power generation, education and agriculture while allocating funds in the 2014 budget.

President Goodluck Jonathan had written the National Assembly on his intention to present the budget on November 12.

The economists, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH in separate interviews, noted that for the country to make progress  economically, there was the need to reduce, drastically, recurrent expenditure.

Former Vice-Chancellor, Crescent University, Prof. Sherifdeen Tella, said the Federal Government should focus on power generation, improving infrastructure, education and agriculture.

Tella, a professor of economics, said these were the ways to expand the economy and generate the much-needed employment opportunities.

He   said, “Power  generation is very important going by the latest development. Secondly, education is very important. Considering the strike of Academic Staff Union of Universities, more money should be voted for education.

“The Federal Government should focus on agriculture essentially by providing avenues for small-scale farmers to access credit so that they can expand and employ more people. The area of focus should be to expand the economy and generate employment.”

Similarly, another economist and senior lecturer at the Department of Economics, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Dr. Usman Muttaka, said there was the need to review the performance of the 2013 budget before the passage of the2014 budget.

He said, “If you say you want to be the 20th largest economy in 2020, five years down the line, you need to assess yourself.

“It’s a knowledge-based economy now. So, you can look at the manpower development sector and education. You cannot be among top 20 economies if your people are not healthy, and secure. Even wages should be looked at N18,000 cannot take anybody home and yet they are still arguing about it.”

Muttaka also said the government’s focus should be on how to ensure that the country’s economic growth had an impact on Nigerians.

“We are told that the economy is growing at eight per cent, but the question to ask is what is the per capital income of Nigerians? Did the living standards of Nigerians improve as a result of that growth? Did employment rate get better?

For any meaningful development, you need human capital, therefore they  need to focus more on education. There have been incessant strikes and the same has happened in the health sector,” he said.

Muttaka added that not much should be expected from the 2014 budget, in terms of performance since the President would most likely be focusing on the 2015 election.

The Managing Director, Financial Derivative Company, Mr. Bismark Rewane, also said the content of the 2014 budget was not likely to be different from the three-year economic framework of the Jonathan administration.

Punch