Some financial experts have advised the Federal Government to look inward and adopt policies that would grow the economy organically as Donald Trump emerged as U.S. President Elect.
They said that Nigeria needed to wake up to new challenges with the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Mazi Okechukwu Unegbu, a former President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), said that government should adopt policies that would grow “our economy rather than depend on foreign aids and grants”.
Unegbu said that the influence of America on Nigeria had affected the economy negatively and Nigeria needed to be on its own. Unegbu said that Nigerians “should have faith in ourselves and our economy and must not depend on other countries to succeed”.
He said that Nigerians should think at ways of developing their businesses and grow the economy instead of corporate entities, especially banks, depending on international ratings agencies.
“Nigerians should be patient with our government and work towards correction of wrong doings to grow the economy,” Unegbu said. On the effect of the U.S. presidential election on the nation’s stock market, he said that the impact would not be felt because the market had been down for some time now. Unegbu advised that market regulators should pursue policies that would grow the market instead of copying unfriendly foreign policies that had affected investor confidence in the market.
According to him, regulators should look at ways of increasing retail investors’ participation in the market to reduce dominance by foreign investors.
“We should start looking inwards in our own market; we must adopt policies that can work for us,” Unegbu said. He said that the global market would correct itself when Trump would take over in January 2017.
Dr Uche Uwaleke, the Head of Banking and Finance Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, also said that in the near-term policies of Trump might affect the market with likely massive domestic borrowings. Uwaleke said that foreign investors might withdraw further from the market if the new government reviewed interest rate to encourage investment. He said that foreign investment flow into Nigeria might reduce as foreign investors might prefer to invest in their own economy.
He, however, expressed optimism that emergence of Trump would not affect relationship between Nigeria and USA.
“It a good thing that Nigerian government did not come out openly to support any of the candidates,” Uwaleke said. He said that he was optimistic that the global market would pick up on the long-run because of the peaceful conduct of the election.
Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella of Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, said that there was uncertainty in the world right now due to the outcome of the election. Tella said that the uncertainties in the world markets had already forced the value of dollars to fall.
He said stock markets around the world were also reacting negatively to the election.
“Uncertainty in the U.S. could make Nigerians there to send money home for safety which can boost volume and value of naira, but this will be short lived,” Tella said..
Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., said that investors might move out of Africa again due to the outcome of the election.
He said that investors in the global stock markets should move to defensive stocks for safety as wind of change blew in the largest economy of the world.
“So, for our market that is already in recession, let investors here go for safety and dividend paying stocks with high prospect of strong earnings to avoid dividend disaster in 2017,” Omordion said.
