Donald Duke to FG: Reduce energy prices to boost productivity, grow economy

Donald Duke, former Cross River state governor, has asked the federal government to reduce energy prices to boost productivity and grow the economy.

Duke spoke on Inside Sources, a programme anchored by Laolu Akande on Channels Television.

According to the former governor, President Bola Tinubu’s administration made a “fundamental error” in announcing policies that had not been debated on.

“What we are doing to our people is just not sustainable. We’ve got to revisit all those policies and put our people first and this is not about subsidy, this is about enhancing the productivity of our people,” Duke said.

“If you reduce energy prices and people become more productive, the economy will grow even further.”

‘HIGH ENERGY COST, INTEREST RATE DRIVING INFLATION’

Duke said high energy costs, over-inflated contracts, ill-distribution of wealth and high interest rates are driving inflation in Nigeria.

“If you look at energy, not only did we increase the price of fuel by that announcement the president made, we put enormous pressure on the foreign exchange regime, so everything went up,” he said.

“We didn’t stop there. We now increased the price of electricity almost two or threefold.

“You’ve got to take care of your local productivity, whether for the individual or for the corporate entities, so we’re not doing that.

“We are still trying to measure everything internationally. We are not there yet. Our people are so poor. They can hardly afford that.

“Most of the contracts we award in Nigeria are three, four times what they ought to be. That puts a lot of money out there that ought not to go into a particular place, but could go to other places.”

Duke said the current administration should reverse the import-dependent status of Nigeria.

“Over 60 percent of the pressure on our foreign exchange earnings is oil import, if you can domesticate that, the exchange rate will dramatically drop,” he said.

“Even beyond that, we need to question the things we import. We are running an import-dependent economy which is wrong. With 230 million people growing every year, we need to run a productive, manufacturing, agrarian economy. We are not doing that. We literally import everything at the expense of our people.”

‘COMPANIES EXITING NIGERIA DUE TO EXCHANGE RATES’

Duke said many companies are exiting Nigeria because of the high cost of production and foreign exchange (FX) rates.

“A lot of companies are leaving Nigeria today because of the cost of production and the exchange rate,” he said.

In 2023, prominent pharmaceutical companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Sanofi Nigeria Limited, stopped operations in the country, citing the FX crisis.

While GSK ended its 51-year presence in Nigeria in August 2023, Sanofi exited in November last year.