By Ishaya Ibrahim
Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), unveils his re-election promises in a document titled ‘Next Level’ on November 18, the same day his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presented his own,‘Let’s Get Nigeria Working Again.’
What are they offering Nigerians on the economic front which is the main concern of most voters?TheNiche presents a comparison of both documents.
Economic model
The Buhari’s government has adopted the welfarist approach to solving the unemployment situation in the land, which climbed from 7.5 percent at the time he took over government in May 2015, to 18.8 percent as at third quarter of 2017.
The Abuja based National Bureau of Statistics has not released new unemployment figures since then. The statistician general, Yemi Kale, said money has not been released for the task.
The Buhari’s administration claims that it has provided direct support to over 13 million unemployed youth, children, the weak and vulnerable through its various National Social Investment Programme which include N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, Trader Moni and School Feeding.
The administration says it plans to enlarge the scope of its social investments programme to create 15 million new jobs if re-elected. The challenge with the plan is that Nigeria is a poor country and it may have to borrow to execute this programme.
Atiku, on the other hand, believes that inecentivising the capitalists is a better way of providing overall economic prosperity and opportunities for all Nigerians.
The PDP candidate says he would provide a level playing field for investors and guarantee full repatriation of their profits. This move is aimed at attracting foreign direct investment into the country which has been in decline.
Nigeria’s extant law on repatriation already allows investors to unconditionally repatriate profits and dividends.
But this law may however require some fine tuning to address the issue that led to the stand off between MTN Nigeria and the federal government over what they alleged was illegal repatriation by the telecommunication giant of $8.1 billion to South Africa.
Although the issue is still in court, this sort of news is the kind that scare away foreign capital.
A more flexible and unambiguous repatriation policy of government can help to stimulate the interest of foreign investors by guaranteeing the safety of their capital.
Atiku also promises to make Nigeria have the lowest corporate tax rate in Africa. He says even though it could reduce government revenue, it will overall encourage corporations to expand their investments thereby employing more Nigerians who will end up paying income tax to the state.
Currently, corporations pay at least 30 percent of their profit as tax. With the Atiku’s plan, the rate is expected to be less than 20 percent.
State and Business
The Buhari’s government says in its second term, it would consolidate on moving Nigeria away from a mono-economy by its industrialisation plan which is to set up six Industrial Parks and 109 Special Production and Processing Centres across each senatorial district.
It is not clear how the government hopes to implement this plan. However, it lays out as its objective; to mechanise agriculture where tractors and processors are accessible and available for farmers across Nigeria.
The Atiku plan, on the other hand, says it recognises the private sector as the engine for economic growth. It plans to privatize the four refineries which have historically been run at a loss.
It also says the Transmission Company of Nigeria will be privatized, while it hopes to concession the nation’s airports and seaports.