Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, says businesses are collapsing despite the federal government’s rising domestic and foreign borrowing under President Bola Tinubu.
In a statement on Saturday issued by Phrank Shaibu, his
director of strategic communication, Atiku described Tinubu’s economic reforms
as a “monumental failure,” citing the difficulties facing farmers,
manufacturers and bakers amid rising production costs.
“The irony is that while the economy is falling under Bola
Tinubu’s watch, his government has accumulated local and foreign loans in
astronomical figures,” he said.
“If local businesses are dying while the government
continues to borrow, Nigerians are entitled to ask where these loans are going.
One is forced to conclude that they are feeding the corruption in Tinubu’s
government.”
His comments followed a disclosure by the Premium
Breadmakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN) that it had lost about 40 percent of
its membership in the last two years due to high energy costs, expensive credit
and rising production expenses.
At an event in Lagos on Thursday, Emmanuel Onuorah, PBAN
president, said the association had lost about 40 percent of its membership to
economic pressures, adding that the industry had also lost about 40 percent of
its jobs within two years.
Onuorah said rising costs of flour, sugar, fats and oils,
packaging materials and transportation had compounded the difficulties facing
bakery operators.
He also said energy accounted for about half of production
costs, while some operators were being quoted interest rates of up to 34
percent on loans.
Hadijat Olopade, PBAN financial secretary, said her bakery’s
monthly diesel expenditure had risen from about N9 million to N19 million,
despite the business being unable to increase bread prices.
She added that a small bakery could require between N40
million and N50 million to transition to alternative energy sources, including
compressed natural gas.
Atiku said the difficulties facing bread makers reflected a
wider failure of the government’s economic policies.
He also cited rising cooking gas prices, which he said had
reached N1,800 per kilogram in Abuja and N1,650 in parts of Lagos and Ogun.
The former vice-president called on the federal government
to address high energy costs and the lack of affordable financing, warning that
the pressures were driving productive businesses out of operation.
He said his proposed administration would prioritise local
production across different sectors of the economy.
“From farmers to manufacturers and now bakers, the verdict
on Tinubu’s economic reforms cannot be clearer: they have been a monumental
failure,” he said.
“The major policy plank of my administration will be to
improve local production in every sphere of the economy, not just crude oil
refining.”
Atiku told farmers, manufacturers, bakers and everyone
involved in local production that his economic recovery plan understands their
pains, “and your concerns are captured in my policy objectives”.
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