Daily Watch – Ouattara postures for another run, NBS to calculate ‘hidden’ economic activities

10th January 2025

President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, urged China’s government to increase the $2 billion currency swap between Nigeria and China to enhance trade between the two countries. He also called for an upward review of the $50 billion aid package for Africa, which China’s President Xi Jinping announced last year. China and Nigeria recently renewed their currency swap agreement, valued at 15 billion yuan (approximately $2 billion), to enhance trade and investment. Receiving the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Wang Yi, at the State House, the president said increasing the level of currency swaps will speed up the infrastructural development in Nigeria and deepen the strategic bilateral relations.  President Tinubu also called on China to support Nigeria’s bid for a permanent United Nations Security Council seat.

Nigeria’s statistical agency on Thursday said it will add illegal and hidden economic activities while calculating the country’s GDP. Moses Waniko, a senior official at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said the new exercise could show that Nigeria has a bigger economy than currently estimated. “There are economic activities that have no legal backing,” he said, citing prostitution. “The practitioners earn income from them and sometimes live bigger than those in the formal sector. At the end of the day, the income earned impacts the formal economy,” Waniko said. Waniko said a new calculation was necessary to reflect changing economic realities. It will consider 2019 as the base year, he said, adding that new segments to be considered in the calculation include the digital economy, health and social insurance, pensions, modular refineries, mining and households employing labour. 

Ghana’s new government could seek extra funding from the International Monetary Fund during its current, three-year programme with the lender in order to cushion the economy, finance minister designate Cassiel Ato Forson said on Thursday. President John Mahama picked the former minority leader in parliament to serve in the key post of finance minister. “We are committed to working with the IMF, but we also want to ensure that we can raise financing; additional finance, working with IMF and other domestic, international partners,” “The reliance on Treasury bills and others has not been very helpful,” said Forson, who also served as a deputy finance minister before. Forson added that the new administration would also cut public spending to help lower inflation further. Mahama also picked John Jinapor to serve as energy minister and Dominic Ayine to the post of attorney general and justice minister, the presidency said on Thursday.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said on Thursday he would like to continue serving his country as president but emphasised that his party had not yet made a formal decision on its candidate for this year’s election. Ouattara, 83, was re-elected for a contested third term in 2020. He has previously said he would like to step down but has also suggested he would need old rivals to commit to withdrawing from politics too. “I am in good health and eager to continue serving my country,” he said in an address to the diplomatic corps in Abidjan, the strongest signal yet that he plans to run again. In September, the ruling party expressed its support for a potential Ouattara candidacy in the 2025 election, which is scheduled for October, but the official nomination and acceptance have yet to take place.