Performance review of one year of the current administration requires proper contextualisation. There were significant legacy issues that significantly impacted performance outcomes, especially from a macroeconomic point of view. There was a legacy of an incredibly dysfunctional foreign exchange market riddled with round-tripping and all manners of malpractices.
Secondly, there was a fuel subsidy regime which created opportunities for corruption and bleeding of the country. The state of affairs in the sector was a major disincentive to investors in the downstream oil sector. The sector became a hotbed of corruption of a huge proportion. The huge backlog of mature foreign exchange obligations was more than $7bn. This created a major liquidity crisis in the economy. There was vandalisation of oil production facilities with incredible impunity. The administration has made significant progress in restoring some sanity to the oil-producing areas, even though it is a work in progress.
How will you describe the economic impact of some of the policies and reforms introduced by the government since assumption?
The truth is that reforms take time to be prepared and executed. It could take an even longer time for the results to be felt. But my view is that the reforms will necessarily pull back the economy from the brink. Much has been achieved with fiscal consolidation. Government revenue has improved significantly following the reforms. There were also tax reform initiatives. The point to stress is that much of the first year was devoted to corrective reforms which were in many instances also painful. But the reforms were inevitable.
Will you say the policies have had any significant impact on the economy?
