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Atiku lists tax cut, removal of electricity sector from exclusive list, selling refineries among other top economic priorities

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Atiku says he would propose legislation to remove the entire electricity value chain from the exclusive list and give states the power to generate, transmit and distribute electricity for themselves. 

By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor 

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has proposed a number of measures, including tax waivers, to stimulate growth in Nigeria’s economy. 

Atiku made the disclosures during a meeting with leaders of the private sector at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday, September 13. 

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In a speech titled “Nigeria dressed in borrowed robes,” the former Vice President says the private sector is key to any government’s development agenda and promised to extend a warm handshake to it if elected President. According to Atiku, by extending a warm handshake to the private sector, Nigeria’s GDP can be doubled by 2030 through the reduction of the government’s influence on the economy and the promotion of private-sector-led development. 

He says he would be willing to give tax concessions for sectors of the economy that create jobs or invest in critical sectors, like building a railing from Akwa Ibom to Maiduguri.

On the exchange rate, Atiku says under his watch, while the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would be allowed the independence to pursue its mandate of regulation, such must not be at the expense of discouraging capital inflows. 

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On electricity, the former Vice President said an emergency will be declared in the sector. 

Atiku says he would propose legislation to remove the entire electricity value chain from the exclusive list and give states the power to generate, transmit and distribute electricity for themselves. 

“One lesson we have learnt is that an industrial dispute with the FG in Abuja should not affect an industry in Lagos or factory in Aba or in Kano or even an average Nigerian who just wants to get home, watch the news and sleep under a ceiling fan.”

Atiku says he will reduce poverty by creating an economic stimulus fund within the first 100 days in office of about $10 billion to support MSMEs across all the economic sectors because they offer the greatest economic opportunities to achieve economic growth. 

The PDP presidential candidate says if elected, his government would stop supporting ailing state-owned enterprises. He envisages that in the medium term, recurrent expenditures should not exceed 45% of the budget. 

He says fuel subsidy will go and the money ploughed into the critical sectors of education and health. 

In his remark, LCCI president, Dr Michael Olawale-Cole said while the chamber is non-partisan, it is however interested in the economic agenda of the candidates and their plans to make a better Nigeria in the next dispensation. 

He says: “The chamber is aware of the overshadowing effect of politics over economics in managing the Nigerian economy and would therefore wish to contribute to the setting of a new economic order that can take our economy from the doldrums. New policy directions, institutional reforms, and sound governance are critical to creating a new economic order in Nigeria. This is why we are gathered here today!!”

Atiku was accompanied to the LCCI by the governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, ex-governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, his campaign spokesperson, Dino Melaye, Lagos State PDP governorship candidate, Jide Adediran, and many other leaders of the PDP.

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