Nigeria: Sanusi Asks Govt to Prioritise Spending, Says N1.4tn Spent On Subsidy Imprudent

By Tony Okechukwu
                                                           
The Emir of Kano and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, has called on the federal government to prioritise its expenditure.
                                                 
Speaking on Power Lunch, a CNBC programme yesterday, Sanusi said the federal government needs to prioritise its expenditure in order to be industrialised.
                                                     
Sanusi said by simply improving the allocation efficiency, the government can make greater impact.
                                                             
 "I have looked at some of the deliberate policy decisions that have been taken, such as the continuation of the fuel subsidy, we are spending a trillion naira to 1.4 trillion naira on petroleum subsidies. Imagine what we could do with that. How many refineries will be built? How many power plants you could build? How much you could fix on your transmission," he said.
                                                             
"So we need to decide for ourselves and understand that every dollar we spend, we have made a choice. We need to decide what is our priority and by this we can free up resources from some of these areas and put them into these areas."
                                                         
While speaking on how to increase revenues, he said countries that have the highest ratio of revenue to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are those that seem to be faring very well on the transparency international corruption perception index.
                                                 
Therefore, Africa needs to focus on improving transparency and public financial management, he said.
                                                             
He added that collaboration between the government and private sectors would help drive industralisation in the country.
                                                       
"There's a surplus of capital in the world which is why we've had many many years of low interest rate. There's a saving glut, but the reason you've got these so much capital is that they are looking for outlets," Sanusi said.
                                                           
"But those outlets can only come when the government begins to address the risks associated with investments and dealing with externalities and coordination problems.