Journal of Advances in Economics and Finance

Nigeria Economy and the Politics of Recession: A Critique

Download PDF (169 KB) PP. 258 - 267 Pub. Date: November 7, 2017

DOI: 10.22606/jaef.2017.24006

Author(s)

Iwedi Marshal^*
Department of Banking and Finance, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Igbanibo Dumini Solomon
Department of Banking and Finance, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

The current recession in Nigeria is characterized by dwindling oil revenue caused by drop in global crude oil price in the market, unfavorable and inconsistent foreign exchange regime, overreliance on imports, high inflation rate and mass job loses, Consequently, the economic recession in Nigeria has led to the following experiences: high cost of living, fall in investment and savings; decline in the activities of stock market, increase in crime rate, high poverty incidence, budget deficit in government spending, high rate of inflation, low domestic production capacity, depreciating value of Naira, scarcity of foreign exchange and high cost of doing business in Nigeria. Furthermore the issues of high interest rates, poor electricity supply, lack of portable water, high cost of transportation and poor state of aggregate infrastructure are resultant effects of the said recession. Some indices reveal that the growth rates in major sectors of the Nigerian economy are either slow or negative. Therefore the declaration by world economics in April 2017 that Nigerian’s economy has come out of recession is political and still far from the reality on ground. The indicators of sales manager index (SMI) do not reflect the true position of the Nigeria economy but rather capture the transaction and activities of the political elites who are in the position to spend foreign currency for everything. The study used the misery index (sum of inflation rates and unemployment rates), per capita income or real GDP to determine the economic well being of Nigeria. Our findings show that the average misery index for Nigeria economy for the period under review stood at 29.88% while the average real GDP for Nigeria for the reference period stood at (1.03%). We submit that the acclaim declaration by world economics is not true. We recommend a shift from a mono product economy to a diversified structural based economy driven by agriculture, mining and manufacturing.

Keywords

Economic recession, unemployment, inflation, economic growth, Nigeria

References

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