 Now the incoming administration needs to focus on tackling inflation first. Now according to experts, the government needs to figure out the way to stem food inflation because even if your subsidy is removed and people can still eat for a reasonable amount of money that solves a big part of the problem plaguing the country. Now the National Bureau of Statistics says that consumer price index CPI which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and commodities sustain its upward trajectory to 22.04% in March compared to 21.91% in the preceding month. Now the NBS and its CPI report for March attributed the 0.13 percentage point increase in the headline index to the rise in the prices of food and commodities. Now last year the World Bank has said that removing the petrol subsidy could cause the headline inflation rate to rise by an additional 2.0 to 2.5 percentage point where we'll focus on tackling food inflation ahead of the fuel subsidy removal. Business Insight starts right now. I am Justin Acadone. Welcome back now to a roundup of major business headlines. Nigerian Equality is market closed negative as the key market indicator declined by 107.03 basic point amid positive market breaths. Now the NGX all share index declined by 0.20%, the close at 52,296.48 basis point as against the 0.32 percentage gain recorded previously to close at 52,403.51 BPS at the end of the last trading session. In higher attempts the NGX market cap records 58.28 billion Naira loss. Yet today the NGX ASI stand at 2.04%. Now the total volume traded declined by 82.41% to close at 550.29 million Naira valued at 5.15 billion Naira and traded in 2 or 6,250 deals. Access Core was the most traded stock by volume with 150.07 million Naira or million units traded. Sector performance was broadly positive as 5 NGX sector index closed southward, 12 sector index closed northward and 3 closed flats. NGX food and beverages index advanced by 2.90% to top the Gainers chart while the Tony index declined by 2.85% to top the Losers chart. Now the Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a regulatory incubation program for fintech firms operating or seeking to operate in the Nigerian capital market that this was contained in a circular released by the commission according to the circular. The portal will be opened from the 28th of April to the 26th of May and registered capital market operators as well as unregistered fintech innovators that require regulation are encouraged to apply. Now the Secs said the move to open a portal comes from a 2021 circular where the commission announced the imminent rollout of the SecRI program for fintechs operating or seeking to operate in the Nigerian capital market. Now the efforts by the central bank of Nigeria to ensure an efficient payment system in the country have boosted the eNaira initiative and sanctions heating 1.4 million Nairas at the end of March. The Gafnaw of the central bank of Nigeria, Godwin Imefeli, disclosed this at the ongoing CBN's 34th Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors Holding in Kalaba, Cross River State. Imefeli was represented by the Director of Policy of the CBN, Dr. Hassan Mahmoud said that his team took advantage of COVID-19 and other developments in country to drive the electronic payment channels. And not to energy martyrs. All prices sunk about 5% to a 5-week low on Tuesday on concerns about the economy of the United States politicians discussing ways to avoid a debt default and investors prepare for more rate hikes this week. Brent futures fell $3.99 or 5.0% to settle at $75.32 a barrel while the West Texas intermediate crude fell $4 or 5.3% to end at $71.66. That was the lowest close for both benchmarks since March the 24th and was also the biggest one the percentage declines since early January. Now all prices and Wall Street main indexes both fell after United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the government could not run out of money within a month. Away from all of that, I'm now being joined by Alesta Wilcox, the chairman of the Lagos and District Society of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria ICANN. Thanks for joining me Alesta. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's my pleasure. Thank you. We're looking at food inflation. We're also looking at the fuel subsidy all of the impact on Nigerians now. Food inflation is higher than the consumer price index. How can the country tackle food inflation in the wake of talks of subsidy removal and all of that? Well, it's a very good analogy to tie this to I mean, high-headed, dreaded monster together talking about food inflation and the subsidy. For one, the issue of fuel has been a very current decimal. So the issue of fuel subsidy has been an arbor trust. Let me say a kind of bone that is tied at the neck of the dog that is not able to eat, is not able to remove, to, I mean, to drop. Now, if you look at food inflation in Nigeria today, inflation, I don't know why the Bureau of Statistics, I mean, it's not piercing through and identifying the various causes of inflation. Inflation generally should be caused by input-output equations. I mean, that is demand and supply, input-output equations and other factors. But in Nigeria, the parameter seems to widen out to other non-economic factors. For instance, let me just give you an instance, my brother. Just this period that you had, Naira's Cassidy between the period of January till about March, when we had Naira's Cassidy. Do you know the price of food stock and other commodity jump-top? This has nothing to do with economic indices. It's just the fact that people just take advantage of situations. Because there is no Naira and everybody is looking forward to buy, people who hear that too hard product just increase the price. And that is part of the problem that I think that the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics are not identifying. So the government that is going to be the policymaking in terms of tackling this will know some of those extraneous factors that do not have anything to do with economies. Secondly, you're looking at the issue of low productivity in terms of food supply. Today, if you go to the market today, you'll see that tomatoes, things like tomatoes, which is everyday meal, which is everyday meal, it's absent in the market. Why? Of course, the hotel is not the season. As for something like plantain, which is the staple food of Nigerians, I mean, since last month, you go to market, you can't find plantain. So there are various factors that are effective with inflation. Scarsity, extraneous factors, Nigerian factors, atmospheric factors, grid factors. Just name it. So the government of the day was beginning to identify these factors and begin to know how to develop countermeasures to attack these factors. Because if you just take it on the book basis, on the demand supply basis, on what the MBS is rolling out, you're not making any progress. That doesn't affect the market in Dalekor. It doesn't affect the market in Bruneguari. It doesn't either affect the market in Africa or somewhere in Ogepi in Kosovo state. Now, but you must identify what are the parameters that causes this inflation. Because if you want to sometimes you find the commodity in the market, you just go and the prices go up without any reason. And then again, so if these factors are not identified, whatever policymakers are doing, they might just be reading by the books and it's not affecting what happens on the ground. And this is very important for a government, a new government that is about to tackle this issue. The activity is low in terms of the cultural sector. Very, very low. I was going to say that, Alesta, because crop production is still around 20% to 22% of Nigerian GDP. Can you break it down for us as per what we have in our hands? Look, as a matter of fact, my brother, we are having a disaster looming in our hands. Because every day there is this urban migration, rural urban migration. And most people that are supposed to utilize the abundance of the land are abandoning it and moving to urban cities just to get linear jobs. When I mean linear jobs, a lot of them just want to become Okada riders. A lot of them just want to become traders. A lot of them are looking for a way to exit the country. These are persons. And then the fact that we have not channeled, I'm talking about state government because look, Eastern will talk about agriculture production. We should pay less attention to the federal and pay more attention to the state because the land belong to the states and food are produced in the states. Now state government has not been able in all their policies to attack the issue of agriculture in terms of putting more people in the farms. If you go to every aspect, apart from maybe the nuts, that is still heavily agriculture, I mean agrarian economy, down south, all the belts in the south that used to produce agriculture in the southeast, in the south-south, in the southwest. Most people have, now what you have are older men aging out population, aging out population in the farms. Meanwhile, the younger ones that are supposed to replace them, uneducated people, people that have a fair amount of strength, either find them looking for jobs in local government to become ticket collectors in motor parks. Sometimes if this may have when I travel along the southeast, I will see everybody young men just sitting somewhere idling away on the road with a stick, closing the door for a trailer to pass so that they can collect money. That is what just was going on. You see everybody young men because of the new case of careriding, the use of carter state, the junction, and military people, these are persons that should be utilized in the farm. And the farm is getting dry as empty as young go back. We have a disaster element in terms of food production. Alright. We still have Alistair Wilcox with us. In part two, when we return from this quick break, we'll be looking at the fuel subsidy removal and deregulation and of course, social intervention programs in a moment to join us again. Welcome back all. We still have Alistair Wilcox, Chairman Lagos and Island District Society of ICANN and we are looking at the fuel subsidy removal amid the current and biting inflation in the country. Now let's talk about fuel subsidy removal and deregulation, which is not usually done in isolation without proper social programs years before the action is actually taken. I know government had talked about grants to cushion the effect with the grants they got from the World Bank. Should it not include social programs that would put food on the table of Nigerian celesta? Does it affect? As far as I'm concerned, the way social programs have been managed in the country has been fraught with a lot of fraud, a lot of corruption and nobody can lay credence to exactly what is happened or what is happening with whatever social intervention. Well, this is not the first time we are traveling this road. We have always traveled this road with removal of services, sometimes partial and then the announcement will always be the money realized will be invested in agriculture, invested in transportation and then labor unions, NLC or labor unions will be giving bosses for, for me, they have not solved the problem. Look, at some point in our life the first of them must go. Unfortunately, we've left it too far and because we have too many shy-locked businessmen in Nigeria, too many shy-locked and greedy, very greedy, wicked kind of, wicked businessmen in Nigeria. Today, diesel is going for as much as 700 Naira, which is the highest in any part, I think the highest in any part of the South African sub-region. Ghana has the ugliest for a long time but the price of diesel in Ghana does not go beyond about 500 Naira and also in terms of compared to the Naira. Ghana is already a fully regulated energy sector. There's no more subsidy. I mean, the prices are just with, but the price of diesel in Ghana is no more than, I mean, moving around the 500 Naira mark. But today in Nigeria diesel goes for 700 and 800. Why? Because we get shy-locked traders, we get shy-locked businessmen who do not consider the interest of the suffering and plight of people and they just do what they want to do because they got the free market and there is always reasons to identify. So, the government must be very careful. A new government coming in cannot just delve into the issue of subsidy removal. Yes, it's gulping too much money through corrupt means. As a matter of fact, the amount of corruption that has impeded in the fuel subsidy regime in recent time is unprecedented. We thought we've had the last of it during the general administration when three liars of Naira was paid to middlemen, to contractors in the name of fuel subsidy. We thought we've had the last of it. But even with NMPC, being the sole importer and being the sole controller of fuel management in Nigeria, the figure keep rising because nobody can give a good account of what is our consumption and all those things and nobody can give a good account of what is the template, what template is being used to measure and to know the actual, you see, we have so much unpatriotic people in our country both in government, out of government in business and so people do not care about the interest of the investment. It's just for what they can account and what they can steal out of the system and no matter who dies, no matter who is in pain no matter who is in trouble, it doesn't matter too and that is the one aspect of our society. So a government that must move fuel subsidy as a new incoming government must look critically at the private, it's not a matter of talking about palliative, no palliative doesn't work because it is also brought with suspicion. What do you call it? Social investment program. It doesn't work. How long will that sustain? I know that the fuel subsidy must go at some point. They still don't want us as open arms shouting or the campaign salaries, even the ones that have been mismanaged. There is so much corruption, so much inefficiency so much distortion in our system that some of these things that are good policies because of our people, our corruption because of our wickedness will make them not to work. Let's talk about corruption and incentives right now. The government over time, over the years had several intervention programs for farmers to boost their food production in the country. We know from the Angkor boroughs program, we know from the Green Revolution, so many as laudable as they were, but oftentimes we'll find out that these interventions or these policies don't really get to the actual farmers. How do we stem these infractions? How do we stem it in the bud really? Sincerely speaking, I have been fully national about what appears right from the term of operation for the nation of Shagari administration through the now program of Babangana administration through other interventions in terms of agriculture. And recently the MF really failed, I think for me our quality it failed money down the drain project of the Angkor boroughs scheme and the rice intervention scheme. Yes, the rice intervention scheme tries to increase the rice production in the country and to a large extent it succeeded, but it doesn't succeed to drive down the price of rice. No. Because the same people who brought money, who the CBN gave money to produce rice are the same people that either exporting this rice or selling it at a price that is not affordable. I cannot imagine that even with all intervention, rice is still a political tool and the price of rice still goes up. So intervention programs have really, really not helped to stimulate it because it is fraught with corruption. It is fraught with less regulation because if you are intervening in a program, that means you have control of that program and you must protect that program. But it is whereby you intervene and then from the back door you receive your own kickback, you get your own money, you give with the right hand, you take with the left hand and then you allow the people to run whatever interventions you have done. That is our pain and I still maintain the fact that it is deep-rooted corruption, deep-rooted in fact it is this ground corruption it is wickedness. I just save you a price. In Ghana, you can find out the problem of this one is not the 600 Naira mark if you combine it to a Naira CD equation. But today in Nigeria, this one goes for 800 Naira. Where are they buying it? I mean is it not the same market? So the weekends of people have made our economy like I just told you when there was economic crisis, people increase price. If there is rain, people increase price. So these are all economy. Alright Alesta, we have to let you go. And our government was to recognize those external factors to make impact in whatever program that we are there at this moment to really have the better of this country. Alright, thank you so much that we have been speaking about, the chairman of Lagos and District Society of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, I can thank you so much Alesta for your time. Thank you for having me. It's always my good pleasure. Thank you. As we go on the show, I will leave you with this feature on healthcare financing. Medical experts have made recommendations on how to improve health financing and ensure the efficiency in Nigeria. They came up with this on the part of a continued medical evaluation program in Lagos with the theme healthcare diversification in the developing economy. I'll leave your details of that report and I'll see you again tomorrow. My name is Justin Akadone. Many thanks for watching. Bye for now. The way a country finances a healthcare system is a critical determinant for region health coverage. In Nigeria, the health sector is financed through different mechanisms. Unfortunately, achieving the correct blend remains a challenge. Medical experts have converged on this CME made and put together by Cleaner Lancer to tackle some of the inherent challenges. Access to healthcare, interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as medical assets financing, takes center stage. We know that most of the patients in Nigeria, about 70 percent of them are out of pocket. But there are initiatives that have been in place. We've always had health insurance. We have donors as well and the government has also earmarked the basic healthcare fund that they've put in place to be able to help the citizen to access it. So apart from budgetary allocation, these areas are ways that we can now see that the government as well and even the private sector is trying to synergize and help to, you know, ensure that the citizens are able to access healthcare. There are lots of healthcare enthusiasts that do not even have access to the right funding thereby not being able to set up, you know, the kind of standard that they'll probably want to set up, not being able to, you know, the kind of technology or equipment, modern equipment that's necessary for, you know, a start-up healthcare organization. So basically in the medical laboratory space where we play, over the years there's been improvement, there's been a lot of entrance. The professionals does course in cancer management in Nigeria. It's efficiency and the need to ensure standardization in the medical laboratory science space. It is that go into determining what we now talk about in cancer case, individualized personalized treatment and it means that if Mr. A and Mr. B have a particular cancer because of their genetic makeup, they will not manifest the cancer in the same way and they may necessarily not benefit from the same treatment. So those are the things that will be updating the community about that. Cancer is not one disease but it is a heterogeneous disease. And for the laboratory, what is expected is the ISO 15189, the 2012 version. Now today they go, the 2022 version was just published. So it gives room for additional provisions for the capturing of the quality standard. So when you understand the quality standard, now you begin to look at it, how can we implement it? The implementation of it is key. Now some of the challenges include the ability for us to understand what is expected from us, two person that have this quality management expert, the infrastructure technology to ensure that this is done. And with the rate of brain drain currently in the country, a lot of our experts who are moving across the country. The reason they need to ensure that resources are used more efficiently, while at the same time removing financial barriers by shifting out of pocket payment, OOPs to order heating resources.