Feb 7 (Lagos) - The CBN Governor answered the call from the house of reps to explain to them the reason for the currency woes that the economy is facing. The problems are not that complicated that he needed to really point them out however the CBN Governor showed them the mirror is a sophisticated manner and they even clapped for him in the end.
Medical Tourism $ 11 billion outflow in 10 years- Nigerians are spending billions of Dollars going abroad for treatments. These are things that should be available to the people locally via hospitals but it is not available. It is not available because the money budgeted towards healthcare is siphoned off by politicians and their cronies in charge.
Barring a handful of good hospitals in Lagos, the rest of the Country depends on broken down clinics, traditional healers and fake imported medicines. Even the President of the Country travels abroad for medical treatment. It is the politicians that have pushed the public into this situation. Countries like UAE, UK & India are benefiting from this flow of medical tourists from Nigeria. The crux of the problem is that the money that was supposed to fix healthcare was stolen by the people who occupied the same seats by those now calling the CBN Governor to explain the problem to them.
$11 billion in 10 years that more than a billion a year that could have been saved by the Country.
Imagine being sick and having to take a flight to go to another Country to get treated. Those people who have to go through this often curse the leaders of Nigeria for putting them through this situation and now they want to know why Naira is falling.
Foreign Education $28 billion - Nigerian students who can afford to study abroad are choosing to do that because the university standards in the Country have dipped sharply over the years. Again the money budgeted towards education in the Country is small companies to what other countries spend on education. Even what is budgeted is siphoned off by politicians and officials leaving the institutions in derelict situation.
CBN Governor also told them about foreign trips which they themselves like to make with private jets, stay at top hotels and run up huge bills that the people of the Country have to pay for at the end of the day. The Country does not export anything significant apart from crude oil and that too has been sharply reduced because of theft in the Niger delta region. The oil theft is running into billions of Dollars that Nigeria is losing.
It was really a class act from the CBN Governor if you read in between the lines, he was showing the reps the mirror regarding where the problem is as regard to currency devaluation. The best part is that he did it in a way that they all clapped for him when he was finished because they thought he was blaming the public.
reporting for easykobo.com on Wednesday, Feb 7 2024 from Lagos, Nigeria