BY JOHNMARK UKOKO
The Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) has appealed to the government at the national and sub-national levels to tackle the issues that led to the problem of high inflation in recent months.
Director General of NACCIMA, Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni, made the assertion in a statement made available to The Trumpet, yesterday, in Lagos.
It explained that inflation measured on a-year-on-year basis has increased persistently standing at 15.63 percent adding that unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2021 stood at 33.3 percent signifying that about 22 million Nigerians were unemployed in a labour force estimated to be at about 80 million people.
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“Our unemployment crisis, with its security implications, deserves urgent attention and definitive resolution. Our association has been working with the government and other private sector operators and stakeholders to provide jobs in order to reduce unemployment.
“We, therefore, appeal to the government to liberalise the business environment to enable our members to do more,” the statement reads.
On the country’s huge local and foreign debts, NACCIMA expressed concern that the country’s indebtedness as of September 2021 stood at $38 billion, while domestic debts stood at about N16 trillion.
“It is now generally accepted that the current levels of debt service payments are considerably high and unsustainable given dwindling government’s revenues,” the statement added.
