*For the first time in a very long time, members of the CBN's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) have openly disagreed with the CBN Governor and the FGN on the Eurobond component of the country's US$100.7 Billion debt (they essentially said it's unsustainable)*
This went unnoticed by most Nigerians who are distracted debating agbado, hegg, ewa and Peter Obi's sole wristwatch and two pairs of shoes. But I am sure that Nigeria's creditors and the international credit risk rating agencies took note.
We have debt service that is devouring about 90% of FGN's revenues. A total of N11.784 trillion and US$8.168 billion has been spent over the last seven years to service both domestic and external debt.
Fuel subsidy has increased by 989% in the last seven years as average monthly fuel subsidy grew exponentially from N23.4 billion at the end of 2015 to N254.8 billion at the end of May 2022.
FGN's Ways and Means Financing should be tracking N24 Trillion now from circa N20 Trillion earlier in 2022 and just N500 Billion in 2015.
While we suffer from the inflationary impact of the global increase in the price of crude oil, gone are the days that Nigeria benefits from high crude oil price (such as during the Gulf war) given the current scandalous theft of the product. With an estimated 115,000 barrels a day lost to oil thieves (some analysts claim that it is more like 200,000 barrels a day), at approximately US$100 per barrel, this translates to a loss of about US$4.2billion a year and this is why the country is struggling to export 1.3 Million barrels of crude per day from 2.05 Million barrels a day in 2015.
It has been said that over 90% of oil produced in Nigeria's Bonny Terminal is stolen, is there a word that can reflect "scandalous" to a higher degree?
I can't even talk about the insecurity across the land when even the President's convoy has come under attack and terrorists sprang their colleagues out of jail in a brazen attack in the nation's capital.
A perfect storm is brewing. Fasten your seatbelts guys, winter is coming and it is not going to be pretty.
#amindisaterriblethingtowaste
#nigeriaeconomy
#jekwuozoemene