President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday he appointed a prominent economics professor, Doyin Salami, as his top economic adviser.
Mr. Salami was, until now, the president of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).
The President’s Chief Economic Advisor (CEAP) is expected to address all the problems of the national economy and present his views to the president, the Nigerian government said in a statement.
It is also expected to closely monitor national and international developments and trends and develop appropriate policy responses; develop and recommend to the President national economic policies to promote macroeconomic stability, promote growth, generate employment and eradicate poverty, among others.
Profile
Mr. Salami, Associate Professor at Lagos Business School, leads sessions on the business environment. He was the Academic Director of the Global CEO program.
Mr. Salami had previously been appointed as Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council constituted by President Buhari. The Economic Advisory Council is responsible for advising the president on matters related to economic growth, economic policy, and fiscal analysis.
A PhD graduate from Queen Mary College, University of London, his research interests include issues related to long-term corporate financial management; macroeconomic policy; business competitiveness and risk management; and characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
He was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria and of the Federal Government Economic Management Team. He is also Managing Director of African Business Research Ltd., based in the United Kingdom.
In addition to teaching, Mr. Salami advises several organizations, including the Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United States Agency for the International Development (USAID).
Beyond multilateral organizations, he also works as a consultant for corporations, such as British American Tobacco (BAT) and BGL Securities Ltd. Other companies for which he has consulted include Coca-Cola Nigeria and Equatorial Africa (CCNEAL), Kakawa. Discount house. He has facilitated or participated in corporate retreats for Zain Nig Ltd., MTN, African Petroleum Plc, among others.
Forceful speaker
For the most part, Salami is considered to be quite blunt when it comes to reviewing the nation’s economic indicators.
In 2017, Salami led the CBN to clean up in his assessment of his monetary policy, which he said was pushing the country into a serious economic crisis.
He criticized the CBN’s “massive cash injections” into the government, accusing the bank of serving as a “piggy bank” for the government, against its own rules.
“The monetary data shows a strong increase in the scope of the financing of the public deficit by the CBN,” he said.
Since December 2016, he said the CBN had made cash available to the federal government in the trillions, mostly beyond legal thresholds.
He said CBN’s claims to the federal government during the period amount to N814bn, which is “twenty times more” than the law allows.
Ironically, the commercial bank claim, he said, “increased marginally by 0.4% to N4.6 trillion.”
Last September, Salami argued that Nigeria’s public debt was unsustainable even though the country’s debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio at 35 percent seemed comfortable.
The economist also lamented that with a relationship between debt service and income of 97.7 percent between January and May 2021, the profile of the country’s public debt was worrying.