CPPE Advocates Fiscal Policy Protection to Curb Surging Food Inflation 

Samuel Mobolaji

The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise [CPPE] is advocating fiscal policy protection to address surging food inflation in the country.

This is even as the director, CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf commended the recent executive Order removing import duties, VAT, Excise duty on pharmaceutical raw materials, intermediate products and, medical diagnostic equipment.

CPPE director confirmed that the fiscal policy protection would address local content needs, surging inflation, conserve foreign exchange, create jobs, deepen backwards integration drive and and revitalise industries to create jobs.

He recommended that, these fiscal policy protection measures should be replicated to boost production in other segments of the real sector while noting that We need similar executive orders for agriculture, agrochemicals and Agro-allied industries to curb the surging food inflation.ttt

To him, “we also need similar intervention in the energy sector to promote energy security and incentivise private investments in the sector even as there is need for similar support for Iron and steel sectors to aid construction industry and reduce construction costs for housing and infrastructure.

We also need fiscal policy protection to support domestic investments in petroleum refineries to conserve foreign exchange, create jobs, and deepen backward integration,he noted.

CPPE affirmed that these fiscal policy protection measures would boost domestic productions, address local content needs, reduce the cost of medications, improve access to healthcare and impact positively on the well-being of citizens.  It would also revitalize our industries and create more jobs.

Commenting on the Fiscal policy measures, Dr. Muda Yusuf said the policy would address supply side challenges in the economy, if well targeted adding that it will Boost production and ensure to fix the current inflationary pressures, driven largely by supply side challenges in the economy.

He observed that, “there is a groundswell of economic nationalism globally and we should respond by strengthening our domestic production capabilities across all sectors. Fiscal policy measures have proven to be more impactful on real sector performance than monetary policy.”

He noted that the real sector of the economy deserves to be effectively protected and incentivized to improve production and ensure sustainability investments in that space.

CPPE commended CBN for scrapping of its Price Verification  System Portal which was a needless duplication of the functions of the Nigeria Customs Service, and a product of a dysfunctional foreign exchange regime.

“We urge the CBN to sustain its engagement with the private sector for quality, evidence-based feedback on monetary policy outcomes. In the meantime, we should identify other overlapping regulatory functions which had continued to constitute impediments to domestic and foreign investments. The impact varies across sectors,” Yusuf advised.

Some of these regulatory overlaps exist with respect to the following institutions: Federal Ministry of Environment, National Environmental Standards and Regulations enforcement Agency [NESREA], State environmental protection agencies, local government environmental units, and state waste management agencies.

There are also the overlapping functions in respect of  SON, NAFDAC, Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, Weights and Measures Department, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission [FCCPC]. These are some of the numerous regulatory institutions with overlapping mandates.