A financial expert, Mr Rowland Anitche, wants Nigeria to raise a team that will engage and renegotiate its interest with the United States following the recently announced tariffs, which is unsettling countries across the world.
Anitche, who made the call while addressing newsmen on the impact of the tariffs on the global economic, maintained that Nigeria like every other country will be affected by the ripple effects of the global shocks caused by the new tariff regime.
He said, “No country is isolated from the ripple effects of global shocks, same for Nigeria and the Continent, rather countries with positive or surplus balance of trade receipts, very high foreign reserves inclusive of gold reserves a haven asset will act as buffers to withstand these shocks”.
The financial expert called on the Nigerian government to adopt a backdoor diplomatic approach in renegotiating favourable tariffs with the US government.
“The Federal Government should raise its team of trade representatives with the Minister of Finance as head of the delegation, Minister for Trade & Commerce and Foreign Affairs as members to engage, discuss and renegotiate the tariffs with their US counterpart in a bid to have a more favourable terms of tariffs rather than engage in open confrontation.
Anitche also advised the Central Bank of Nigeria to start working on increasing the country’s Gold Reserves from its current stock of 21.5tonnes as contained in the World Official Gold Holdings of December 2024 to over and above 500 to 1,000tonnes.
“Gold serves as an insurance, a safe haven and alternative to building foreign reserves (US Dollars) whose value has greatly diminished in value through inflation compared to Gold.
“Gold price currently at $3,008, will continue its upward movement based on its reclassification as a Tier One asset by Bank for International Settlement (BIS) since 2019.
“This means that Gold is now liquid cash geopolitical conflicts, seen as a potential source and remedy to address global debts and liquidity.
Anitche feared that the direction of the current US government is not favourable to Nigeria’s heavy reliance on crude oil exports.
“The Trump administration has never hidden its desires to see a reduced price of crude oil to address cost push inflation. We have witnessed a steady decline in price to current levels of below $70.
“Unfortunately for Nigeria, this current price level is below the nation’s budget benchmark of $75 per barrel. Reduced earnings from crude oil sales places a huge burden on foreign reserves to defend the naira and fund the budget.
“However, the good news however is that its citizens will have a relief in reduced price of PMS, AGO and cooking gas, even though this is yet to impact on transportation cost,” he noted.
