A business advisory consultant, Wole Ogundare, says the 2024 budget proposed by President Bola Tinubu does not inspire hope when the projected GDP growth rate is compared to the population growth rate.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise programme on Saturday, Ogundare, who tagged the appropriation ‘budget of coasting along,’ said any budget of hope will be one where the GDP growth rate is around 7 to 10 percent.
“When you look at the assumptions, the first thing I typically look at is the growth rate. So the macroeconomic framework tend to force you to look at the growth rate. The President projected a 3.76 growth rate; if you look at that growth rate, how does it really make sense?
“You compare it to the population growth rate in Nigeria. Our population growth rate today is about 2.5, so if you look at 2.5 population growth rate relative to a 3.76 GDP growth, it tells you immediately that this is not a budget of hope, it is a budget of coasting along. Let us just coast along for now.
“Any budget of hope will be something where the growth rate is about 7 to 10 per cent. So, I guess the guys in charge are being very careful not to overestimate their position, which is why they say, ’look, let us just coast along’. So anything around hope, forget it; Nigerians should just forget it for now because there is nothing hopeful around it,” Ogundare who is also an accountant, said.
According to him, this is far from the budget that will end most of the economic problems facing Nigeria at the moment.
Credit: channelstv.com
