Kenneth Amaeshi has advised the federal government to explore the reduction of taxes and duties and support the consumption of locally produced goods and services to address the economic challenges facing Nigerians.

Mr Amaeshi, a professor of Sustainable Finance and Governance at the European University Institute, Italy, gave the advice in an interview on Wednesday in Abuja.

According to Mr Amaeshi, the chief economic adviser to Governor Hope Uzodimma, the government and the citizens have roles in solving the present economic challenges.

“The federal government can come up with such fiscal policies like tax reduction to encourage companies to invest, expand and employ more workers.

“They can equally reduce the duties paid by importers on some goods, give incentives to consumers of locally produced products and pump in money into the system through construction and other sectors,” he said.

He said the current economic situation in the country, which had resulted in protests against hunger, was a twin problem of “inflation and unemployment.”

“This is a very dire economic situation. Nigerians can massively embrace agriculture for food production. The multinational and other big companies can support their host communities to establish agricultural firms such as poultry, fishery projects, or even ice block-making factories, among others,’’ he said.

Mr Amaeshi said reducing money in circulation helps stabilise the economy, adding that hyperinflation creates unemployment.

“It is like when you pump in money into the system, it will boost the productive capacity and leads to expansion by companies. This helps firms invest, expand, and open doors for the employment of more workers.

“In economics, there is always tension between inflation and employment, and we have this saying: a little bit of inflation is good, but when it is too much, it is not good because it ruins the value of money. But when you have the twin problem of unemployment and inflation, that is a difficult one, and it is where Nigeria is now,’’ he said.

He said another challenge facing the economy was a dearth of data for policy formulation.

He said the nation’s large informal sector also made capturing some economic players in its gross domestic product (GDP) statistics difficult.

Mr Amaeshi said these made the government base its economic policies on the estimation of a situation, which makes it difficult for governments to plan. 

(NAN)