Nigeria: Double-digit growth rate not feasible in 2013 – LCCI

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday said that the double-digit Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate predicted by the CBN for 2013 might not be feasible. Mr Muda Yusuf, the Director General of LCCI, said in Lagos that the prediction was not realistic even if some reforms in the economy were successful.
According to Yusuf, there are many challenges confronting the power and oil sectors and these challenges are unlikely to be solved in 2013. “There is the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill and with January out of it, that forecast is not realistic. I am not too optimistic that this can happen this year. We have just 11 months to go in 2013,” he said.
Yusuf said that even if the PIB was passed, the investment needed to accelerate growth was not easy to come by. “We are talking of billions of dollar investment in the oil and gas sector and there is the problem of labour issues. The forecast may be possible in the near future when these issues are resolved, but not in 2013,” he said.
NAN recalls that the Governor of CBN,
Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, made the forecast at a panel discussion on emerging markets at the just concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Sanusi said that the growth was attainable if the current reforms in the oil and gas sector and the privatisation of the power sector were allowed to scale through.