 As Nigeria marks its 64th anniversary of independence, its citizens are stoked in general enemy of despondency. This is as a result of general insecurity in the country rising on employment in high costs of living. Nigeria's economy has been stagnant, growing at less than 1 percent cumulatively during the past six years. Far below population grows of 2.6 percent. It also has about 40 percent of the population of about 200 million people living below the poverty line. However, the president in his Independence Day broadcast says the nation has recovered from economic recession in the fourth quarter of 2020 with a GDP growth rate of 0.11 percent and grew by 0.51 percent and 5.01 percent in rural terms in the fourth and second quarters of this year. We will be analysing the economic highlights of his broadcast. Happy Independence Day Nigerians, welcome to Business Insight on Plus TV Africa. I am Justin Atadone. Just a little watch on Business Insight on Plus TV Africa before we get into the analysis proper. The Niger Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NET, value-added tax, VAT for viscosity rounded up business headlines for this week. Take a look. The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative says the indebtedness of 77 oil and gas companies to the federal government is now 2.66 trillion naira. NET's Executive Secretary Oji Wunaya Oji who said this in Abuja while speaking on the status of 80 implementation in Nigeria said the 77 firms carried out the operations across the country. NET would publish fresh lists of indebted oil firms that would give anti-corruption agencies including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to go after the defaulting organisations. The Corporate Affairs Commission says it has completed the incorporation of Nigerian National Petroleum Company in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act. The Commission's Registry General Gaba Aboboka confirmed today development in Abuja while speaking at the Quater Limiting of Healths of Agencies in the Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment. According to him, the registration was completed the same day after fulfilling all requirements set for the incorporation of the NNPC Limited. More than two months after the Central Bank of Nigeria stopped the sale of forex to its licensed brood-de-change operators, workers in the sector have been lead of overscassity of forex findings have revealed. Operators in the sector have also estimated that their losses could hit 300 billion naira if the situation deteriorates further. To salvage the deteriorating situation, the operators are seeking other means of survival by seeking permission to get involved in the diaspora remittance business. The 2021 annual Statistical Blending of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries released on Wednesday showed a drop of 500 and 43 million boroughs and accrued oil reserves of Nigeria. Thousands of well-proven oil reserves by country as contained in the bulletin indicated that Nigeria's oil reserves dropped from 37,453 million boroughs in 2016 to 36,910 million boroughs in 2020. The federal government has repeatedly stated that it was making efforts to grow the country's oil reserves in a bid to increase Nigeria's revenue from crude sales. The Court of Appeal in Abuja has granted the request of the legal state government to be joined in the suit challenging the collection of value-added tax of states. The legal state government had in the suit sought to join the reverse state government in the appeal filed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, against the judgment of the federal high court in Abuja, which empowered reverse state to call it that and not the federal tax authority. In the resumed hearing of the case on Thursday, the court also ordered all processes filed to be served on the attorney general of the legal state. The case was then adjourned to October 7 and will be heard at the appellate court in Port Harcourt. Hello Nigerians. Our unrelenting effort at resolving an almost two decades' toll on the management of our petroleum resources and ensuring equitable consideration to our host communities has resulted in the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021. This act not only overhauls the institutional, regulatory and fiscal framework of the petroleum industry but also reduces the previous opacity associated with this sector. This is the first step to reform as the process is a continuous one. Already to further improve the governance framework, I have sought for an amendment of Section 11, Subsection 2B and Section 34, Subsection 2B who also continue to review and amend as appropriate. At this juncture, it is very appropriate that I salute the leadership and members of the National Assembly for their patriotism, dedication to duty, candor and most importantly the dispatch with which they have enacted legacy legislations for this nation. I do not take such a level of cooperation for granted and hope it continues for the overall efficiency. And those were just snippets of the President's broadcast today talking about the economy and of course other areas in the nation. Now joining us to analyse the high point is Kate Palm. She is a business consultant and social entrepreneur. Many thanks for joining us today on Business Insight and plus TV Africa Kate. All right, you're welcome Kate. Let's talk about the economy. Let's just look at it holistically. It's been 61 years since Nigeria gained independence. Some people would say 61 year old man is someone who should be full of enough wisdom. But if you were to analyse from where we are coming from and where we are at right now, how would you just rate the economy generally? It's really difficult to place a specific rating on the economy right now. Because the one hand there are so many things, so many negatives to it. When you just look at certain indicators like the current exchange rate for instance, just at the beginning of this year the dollar was at 360 and right now we're looking at 580 there about. So when you look at some of all those short term things you might say, okay the economy you would rate it very poorly. But then there are certain strikes also that we have taken in the economy in terms of the way business is being done with the use of technology. So many other things. So I would say we're not quite where we should be as a country in terms of the economy. We have taken some baby steps but we're still far away from where we need to be. Alright, glad to know that. But let's just talk specifically now concerning Nigeria's economy. The President addressed them, the nation in the early hours of today and he specifically mentioned refinery, the nation's refinery of crude oil and all of that. Specifically he said that they will be exploring more of the modular refinery. Would you say that's a welcome development judging by the fact that we have not really had it so smooth when it comes to crude oil and enough petroleum for the nations to consume? Thank you, absolutely. The modular refining, the domestic consumption of refined products, it's very crucial because I mean, look at how much we're exporting the crude for and look at how much we're importing products at. So absolutely, if we have more refineries functioning, that would be extremely good for the economy. In fact, people, players in the oil and gas industry, predict that just the tango refinery that is coming upstream will be a game changer for our economy. And so we're all looking forward to that. The idea behind modular refineries is that they're located close to where there's speed stock and also where there's a ready market. So once you're producing and the market there is absorbing, you're able to balance, demand and supply. So that's likely to result in driving the price of petroleum products down. And also, I mean, it's serving the market so it's readily available and it will do well for the economy. Another aspect that he talked about is also the gas, the focus on gas. This decade has been declared a decade of gas. And so Nigeria has quite an abundance of gas. And so as we look at the energy transition and going to gas and other forms of energy, I think energy is probably our highest cost of production in the country. If I have to bolt in, you mentioned the issue of the president looking in the direction of gas. Even if I'm mostly devil's advocate right now, I just made there. Because we have, like you said, gas, enormous gas bound here in the country. Yet Nigerians are grappling with the high costs of LPG, liquefied petroleum gas. Would you really say that is it a thing of joy that we have this supply? And yet we are seemingly wallowing. And the president is saying that we are going to explore more of that in the coming maybe days, months, or maybe years as it were. So how would you draw the line of having so much gas in supply? And yet your citizens are paying so much to get this particular gas in your homes. Well, you know, they say the best time to start was yesterday, but the next best time to start is right now, and it's better late than ever, right? Yes, we do have an abundance of gas. But you know, setting up the infrastructure is not a day's job. They have been talking about the AKK pipeline project for a number of years. These are huge infrastructural costs. They run into billions of dollars. And the issue with the gas is that why we have been exporting most of the gas that we have had is because of the pipeline infrastructure. These things are highly flammable. They are environmental risks that are associated with these kinds of investments. And so it's important to pay attention to all of those things. Now, to the consumer, we are only looking at the price. And this high price, God willing, with all the government, if the political will is there and the right measures are taken with the right public-private partnerships, gas should be something that should be readily available to the villages. So with that whole gas infrastructure thing, beyond production and all that, there's the marketing, there's the sales, there's even the awareness. You know that in our rural areas, people are not yet aware of the benefits of using LPG as opposed to firewood. So it requires all hands to be on deck. And the recommendation from my end to people here would be everybody in Nigeria should start considering being a gaspreneur at this point in time. There are opportunities there to see how can we bring gas to our local communities, how can gas get to my village? If we're all thinking like that, you know, we're producing more, then it will get to people. And it will be available in time as the infrastructure is being put in place. Alright, another thing that caught the President's attention in his broadcast was that of food security and food supply. You will agree with me that practically every day you go to the market, the prices of commodities are just increasing by the day. I don't even know how much they sell beans, rice and stuff right now in the market. But the President has seemed to believe that the issue is that of the middlemen in the market. Do you agree? On this note, I beg to disagree with Mr. President. I think he's a bit out of touch with the reality of the people because the issue is not the middlemen. We all do know that when there is a currency fluctuation, the currency risk that we face in this country is what drives the market, not the middlemen. We import everything, everything. So the materials for the fertilizer, everything that is required in the agricultural value chain is imported. And so when there is a fluctuation in the currency and the value of the naira drops of the price of tomato in the market, I don't think that the role that middlemen play is figured in saying that the entire agricultural economy is affected by men. I don't think that that is correct. I think that not enough investment has been made in the agricultural sector, not enough human capital has been developed in that sector. And of course, there's not enough exports. We're still largely importing men, and that is the impact that we're feeling now and not the middlemen. All right, now, fine. Let's look at other aspects of the economy, specifically the real sector. Let's talk about manufacturing, for instance. Since COVID-19, manufacturers generally have been lamenting and they say the economy in as much as we saw some sort of minimal growth last year, but they are still lamenting. They complain about effects. They complain about import rate and, of course, interest rate at the moment. So how would you say that we can get out of the waters in terms of getting out of the manufacturing sector to work optimally? Well, in that sector, as it is, again, it still boils down to actually the imports because a lot of weight is played, I see, because of the level of imports. And of course, the impact of the pandemic was in that sector because the entire supply chain network or the supply chain infrastructure was shaken by the pandemic. So when you put all of all those things into consideration, you know that, first of all, it does require time. The value chain, the entire manufacturing value chain, you did mention something about the rails, rotation work and all of all those things that are affecting you. You produce the goods. How do you take them to the... Not only are we having the challenges of insufficient transport infrastructure, there's the security that is affecting people, which is also affecting... which also has an impact on the agricultural sector as well. So let's... those to be dealt with need to be dealt with. People need to be safe to be... to do what they need to do to support the economy. And then once all of all those things are put in place, I would commend the government in terms of the strides that they're making when it comes to the rail infrastructure. But it's happening, you know, Nigeria does not need organic goods right now. We need something, we need radical change. Quick changes that people will see and will be able to key into and run with. I think that's the missing link. All right, Kate, just before we'll let you go, let's just try and sum all of our thoughts. Specifically, I want you to talk about the way forward in the nation's and forexam regime. You will agree with me that the narrow is not really doing well in the international, in the currency market. I know most Nigerians are lamenting, and even the BDCs are also lamenting now. But would you say the central bank of Nigeria has been moving in the right direction vis-à-vis the bank of the BDCs and from sale of the forex as we round off? Well, to be honest, I think the steps that the central bank has taken are steps in the right direction because that has curbed to an extent that is expected to curb some of those round-tripping and black market transactions that are going on. However, as those measures are being taken, it's important to consider the impact on the vast majority of the people in a country where unemployment is about 40% at this point in time. The multiply effect, I think that it would have been done in such a way that the effect on the economy and the common man with some cushions, the immediate ban people are struggling, even genuine businesses are struggling to assess forex for their businesses and, of course, that will have an impact on every other sector, the manufacturing sector that you talked about. Thank you so much. Indeed, we have been speaking with some Kate Palm. She is a business consultant and social entrepreneur and she joined us all the way from Abuja. Many thanks once again for sharing your thought and input with us on the show this evening. Thank you very much for having me. And happy Independence Day to you once again. Happy Independence Day to you too. All right. And that's the size of the show for today. My name is Justin Khadunye. Many thanks for watching and see you again next time. Bye for now.