The director-general Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chinyere Almon has urged the federal government to invest more in building infrastructure to prevent future disasters.
This is coming as the federal government plans to add 819.5 billion naira supplementary budget for critical infrastructure projects to be financed from domestic borrowing sources to the 20.5 trillion naira 2022 Appropriation to bring the total budget to 21.32 trillion naira.
She said that they expect that the supplementary budget will be used totally on not only repairing damaged infrastructure but also expects the government to invest more in building infrastructure to prevent future disasters.
She also said that a deeper look at the figures showed that the supplementary budget if approved will raise the budget deficit for 2022 from 10.78 trillion to 11.6 trillion naira and about 4.43 per cent deficit to GDP ratio.
At the end of the first half of 2022, total debt service stood at 2.597 trillion naira, higher than the prorated sum of 1.978 trillion by 619.81 billion naira , the interest payments on Ways and Means collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria amounted to 714.74 billion naira.
On the revenue side, she said, the economy has not performed to expectations, stressing that at the end of the first half of 2022, the Gross Oil Revenue amounted to 2.17 trillion against 4.7 trillion naira budget projection for the period.
This is lower by 2.5 trillion about 53.63 percent compared with the 2022 half-year budget estimate.
Analysts have projected positive sentiment to linger on the Nigerian stock market this week, as investors cherry-pick on fundamentally sound stocks.
The Santa Claus rally continued on the Nigerian Exchange ahead of the Christmas holidays and end of the year window dressing in the midst of seeming buying power and strong momentum as revealed in the short, medium and long term trend of the market.
Therefore, signaling the continuation of this recovery into the new year as all eyes are on the expected companies’ full earnings and corporate actions to support price in the face of 2023 general election uncertainty and post-election rally. LEADERSHIP
Procyon News
