Journalists have been urged to go beyond ordinary reporting by studying sectoral allocations of national and state annual budgets to uncover padding.
Speaking at the one-day capacity building for some journalists in Lagos State on Monday, the Publisher of Global Business News, Tajudeen Atitebi, urged journalists to find out whether sectoral allocations conformed to international benchmarks.
Atitebi, who presented a paper entitled: “Interpreting The Budget”, said budget estimates could be padded, adding that journalists must scrutinise past budget estimates to ensure that previous provisions were not embedded in the current budget estimates.
He said that the success or otherwise of any government budget implementation would depend on “how realistic the budget assumptions are”.
“Journalists must study the budget enough to know how much is allocated to the different sectors.
“Budget assumptions in Nigeria, particularly in the Federal Government’s budget, are the projected crude oil production level in the budget year, the projected crude oil price on which the budget is predicted, and the projected Naira exchange rate for the budget year.
“When writing stories, journalists must be aware that budgets are always full of figures; so, they should not bore their readers with too many statistics,” he said.
In a paper presented on “Maritime Economy and Harnessing the Nation’s Potential,” a veteran journalist, Dr Ovie Edomi, said that the nation could export fish, crayfish, cocoa and timber and earn much foreign exchange if the maritime and blue economy could collaborate.
He said that many lakes and Islands in Nigeria could be turned into maritime sites to grow the economy.
He said, “If we can train more people to take up seafaring jobs, it will help us greatly.
“If after 63 years of independence, we cannot harness all these resources for national growth and development, I would not know how to describe the independence we have,” he said.
A resource person, Mrs Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma, called for regular training and re-training of journalists for greater effectiveness.
Joel-Nwokeoma, also the Chairman of the Capital Market Correspondents Association of Nigeria, said that it was important for journalists to understand well their beats of coverage.
She said that capital and money markets were important for economic growth and required effective coverage.
On the role of money and capital markets in the Nigerian economy, Joel-Nwokeoma said that both markets had different but complementary roles in economic growth and development.
According to her, the money market supports liquidity management, ensuring that businesses and governments meet their short-term obligations.
She said this would instill confidence in the financial system.
“Capital market is vital for economic growth. It channels long-term resources to enterprises and governmental entities, facilitating infrastructure development, business expansion, and technological advancement,” Joel-Nwokeoma, who delivered a paper entitled: “Money and Capital Markets in Transforming the Economy (Media Perspective)”, said.
NAN
Credit Gist New Today News in Newspaper Nigeria Headlines
