Professor of Finance and Capital Market at the Nasarawa State University Keffi, Uche Uwaleke, has said that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) released Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics is not good for a developing economy like Nigeria.
According to Uwaleke, the growth failed to address the twin issues of poverty and unemployment.
The first Nigerian Professor of the Capital Market said: “In my view, this identified growth pattern, weighted in favour of the services sector, is not healthy for a developing economy such as ours.
“Little wonder, economic growth does not appear inclusive, reflecting in rising unemployment and poverty levels (new NBS methodology attempts to mask this).”
The NBS in its Q2 2023 GDP report stated that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product growth rate slowed to 2.51 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of this year (Q2 2023) compared to 3.54 per cent recorded in Q2 2022,
The former Imo State finance commissioner noted that while the oil sector tanked considerably on account of reduction in crude oil production, growth was driven by the non-oil sector.
“The Non-oil sector performance was powered by the Services sector (4.42%) especially by Telecoms, Trade, Financial services,
“Industry sector appeared hugely impacted by rising inflation during the quarter. Growth rate was negative at -1.94% compared to 0.31% in Q1, 2023
“The sudden removal of fuel subsidy in May could be blamed for the plunge in the Transportation sector by over 60 points from Q1 2023.
“The Agriculture sector (comprising 4 activities, though dominated by crop production) printed a slightly improved performance over Q1. But, (shy of 2%) is still far from its pre COVID’19 levels, he said.
To address the imbalance, Uwaleke insisted that it is “time we reset this faulty economic structure, leveraging technology, in favour of the productive sectors: Industry and Agriculture.”
