‘Rigged Prosperity’ cause of poverty for many Nigerians – Atedo Peterside

The founder of Stanbic IBTC, Atedo Peterside, has said that corrupt practices perpetrated by some highly connected Nigerians are the underlying causes of poverty in Nigeria.

The renowned investment banker and economist said this on Monday at a plenary session of the Nigerian Economic Summit held in Abuja.

Mr Peterside identified oil theft and other fraudulent activities surrounding fuel subsidy and foreign exchange as the three points of “rigged prosperity” where the well-connected impoverish many Nigerians as a result of poor institutional oversight.

Mr Peterside’s intervention on “rigged prosperity” is a creative reference to the theme of the event, “2023 Beyond: Priorities for Shared Prosperity.”

“The intersection of a few criminals in governments is what leads to some of these biggest problems,” he said.

“You see, rigged prosperity is the cause of poverty for many because what happens is that when we take serious economic policy issues, and you allow a few people to rig them in a way that it benefits them, but to the detriment of millions of Nigerians, then what you have is very few people become very rich, and millions of people become very poor, and it’s unnecessary”.

Addressing the issue of oil theft, he said it takes a well-connected person to get away with the huge amount of oil being recorded as stolen in Nigeria.

“People say up to possibly 500,000 barrels, by anybody. Please, some of us are from the Delta area. If you go to the little oil thieves doing illegal refinery, he will tell you he has no right to bring in any ship to Nigeria, that is for the big boys.

“So what kind of person can bring a ship to Nigeria to load crude oil if he does not have friends in governments? Should I talk about criminals in government together?”

Subsidy

On petrol subsidy, Mr Peterside said Nigeria is one of the few oil-producing countries in the world where the high price of crude oil does not impact domestic realities.

“With the price of crude oil going very high, there is potential for arbitrage (because) profits widens. When it widens, the criminal gangs that are involved in the subsidy business find more creative ways to falsify documents, make Nigeria pay for shipment that never got here or bring previous shipments, some of which finish off going back outside the country,” he said.

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On foreign exchange, Mr Peterside said there are less than one million Nigerians who presently have access to foreign exchange at the official rate.

“Have the right parentage and the right connection; get a chance to make a fortune. And it is worse than that because the cost of foreign exchange policy is not something that is understood.

“Sometimes, (it’s) because the playing field is not level. Let’s imagine there are three of us in the same business, but I have the right parentage, if I get foreign exchange at 450 I may get impatient and sell my goods at 550 to 650; the other two people with poorer parents have to buy at the parallel market. My activities can bankrupt them. “

Mr Peterside said there are Nigerians recording losses and going out of business, not because they are inefficient, but because an inefficient but well-connected businessman enters their space and they cannot compete with him.