Government must introduce policies that prevent businesses from collapsing and move to sustain profitability, job creation and value addition, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has said.

Speaking virtually yesterday at the high-level interactive session with members of the National Assembly, heads of agencies and directors of the Ministry of Finance in Abuja, Edun insisted that the government has a big stake in the private sector’s success.

“Where a company is losing, the taxes will go down.” The minister stated that the interactive session was a demonstration of the commitment of the Federal Ministry of Finance to partner with critical stakeholders at various levels in driving sustainable economic growth and sound financial management for the country. He further explained that the goal of the government was to ensure that the fiscal policy remains strong, consistent and aligned with the monetary policy.

Edun stressed the need for collaboration and cooperation not just within the government, but also between the government and the private sector. According to him, collaboration is also needed between the executive and the legislative arms of government.

He disclosed that the country is desirous of enthroning transparency, reducing waste and fostering accountability in public financial management while optimising government resources.

“We are at that optimisation stage where there is less focus on borrowing, particularly from the commercial markets which are quite high. There is a focus on optimising assets and crowding private sector investment, whether domestic or foreign. That is the collaboration I keep referring to. I am confident that through our collective resolve, using macroeconomic tools, we can chart a course that will lift our people out of poverty in substantial numbers,” he said.

While decrying the inconsistency in data generated by most government agencies, Edun highlighted the negativity this has on the debt burden of the country, saying: “We need fiscal data and reporting, improved budgetary implementation and evaluation. This is important, not because we need good data for planning, but because it affects our fortunes.

“The more robust, more robust, consistent, accurate and timely data that we can put out, where the Office of Accountant General on the output in figures for revenue, is the same as the one that the Central Bank of Nigeria puts out, is the same as the one that the Bureau of Statistics puts out, this will help us to earn and achieve better credit ratings, lower interest rates, lower debt service, more money for spending on our infrastructure.”

The Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, lamented the lack of reliable data to drive planning and development.

“We do not have a critical, simple source of data. Something is as simple as how much petrol we consume. It is rocket science, you don’t have hydrogen. We have different data sources. Once we are not sure of what data is, we have institutional risk, both for the government managing the economy,” he stated.

In his keynote, Senator Ita Enang urged the Federal Ministry of Finance to establish a liaison office in the National Assembly to prevent government agencies from running their governments.

https://guardian.ng/business-services/business/fg-committed-to-sustainable-business-environment-says-edun/