Nigeria’s economy slipped into recession in the third quarter of 2020 with a decline of 3.6 percent, having contracted 6.1 percent in the second quarter, leading to Nigeria’s second recession in five years. An announcement from the National Bureau of Statistics said Gross Domestic Product grew 0.11 percent between October and December from a year earlier. The good news is that the country’s economy exited recession in the fourth quarter of 2020, recording its first growth in three quarters as the coronavirus-linked lockdown was lifted across the country.

Five years, two recessions! GDP growth over the past five years has been unimpressive for such a resource-rich developing country. What is the way forward? How do we begin to fund our budgets and end borrowing which puts the country in huge debt?

Financial analyst, Tunji Andrews insists that there are sectors that have not left recession. “Only four sectors got us out of the last recession and we just barely escaped it because of the price of crude oil. I do not like the chants of victory that I’m hearing from the people in government. We know the facts. Nothing was done structurally to take us out of this recession? What exactly did we do? What did we change? What improvement did we put on the ground? Did we increase revenue or support businesses? WE DID NOTHING! Our existence or livelihood is tied to oil! It should bother us that we are so tied to a commodity.”

It took Saudi Arabia almost 20 years to actively diversify their economy, we have not even really started! This shows that it would take us even longer to get to where we are going.

“To get Nigeria running is to think large scale. We need to attract big industries to come and invest in Nigeria”, Tunji advised.

The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing plans to concession at least 12 federal highways to private firms. in a bid to ensure regular maintenance of road networks across the country.

The arrangement will enable the private companies to introduce toll gates on the 12 highways and generate revenue for regular maintenance of the roads.

In a statement the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Abuja says the 12 highways to be concessioned under the Ministry’s Highway Management Development Initiative are Abuja-Lokoja, Benin-Asaba, Kano-Katsina, Shagamu-Benin Onitsha-Owerri, and Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga.

Others include Enugu-Port Harcourt, Ilorin-Jebba, Kano-Shuari, Potiskum-Damaturu, Lokoja-Benin, Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta and Lagos-Badagry-Seme Border.

According to the ministry, the roads are under the pilot phase of the HDMI to be managed by selected private investors under its Value-Added Concession, VAC, arrangement.

The 12 highways represent 1,963 kilometres of the country’s 35,000 km federal highway network. The ministry projects N1.34 trillion worth of investment. 50,000 direct jobs and at least 200,000 indirect jobs would be generated through the concessioning of the highways to the private operators.

The ministry said it obtained approval of the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission, ICRC, to go ahead with the implementation of the HMDI, which incorporates the concessioning of the highways and the right of way to private sector operators.

Read also: https://newscentral.africa/nigeria-concessions-abuja-kaduna-train-e-ticket-for-n900m/

The document explains that due to paucity of critical funds to service the ever-expanding road network in the country, the FMWH proposes the engagement of concessionaires who will manage and develop the right of way, while maximising its commercial potential.    

Nigeria, other OPEC, and even OPEC + members could earn more from the black gold, according to a new analysis from Goldman Sachs.

The US bank is predicting that crude oil price could increase by $10 per barrel for the second and third quarters of 2021.They base their prediction on the fall in supply and rising costs.

Goldman Sachs said on Monday that Brent is likely to average $65/barrel in the second quarter and $75/barrel in the third quarter. Its previous forecasts were $10/barrel lower in each case.

According to the bank, the main catalysts for rising prices include low inventories, higher costs and speculative inflows.

“We now believe that oil prices will rally sooner and higher than our previous $65/barrel summer forecast because of fundamentals, higher marginal costs — as least in the short run — as well as the ongoing reflationary asset rotation,” it said in a note, quoted by Argus Monday. Reflation is the act of stimulating the economy by increasing the money supply or by reducing taxes, seeking to bring the economy back up to the long-term trend, following a dip in the business cycle.

Goldman Sachs expects Brent to average $70/barrel in both the fourth quarter and in 2022, up by $5/barrel.

Goldman Sachs has also said, beyond expectations, demand and supplies have rebalanced faster than was expected during the winter and the deficit is likely to broaden the northern hemisphere spring because the rise in OPEC+ production delays the recovery in demand.

Any rise in Iranian exports will most likely take months to materialise and this is accommodated within an aggressive increase in the amount of OPEC+ output.