Contrary to claims in some sections of the opposition political parties that economy of the country is shaky, the presidency has said, the economy is on a sound footing under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.<\/p>\n
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe informed that the degree of transparency and forthrightness which the administration has displayed in the management of the economy in the last two years as well as the various fiscal policies, reforms and programmes adopted do not give room for fears that the economy might in any way be endangered.<\/p>\n
He said like the economy of other nations have its challenges, the Jonathan administration has courageously and innovatively been tackling with measurable, obvious and clearly tangible positive results in the last two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth is that contrary to this thinking, Nigeria\u2019s total National crude oil production is 2.06 million barrels per day.\u00a0 Europe has become a major destination for Nigerian crude oil cargoes, with the volume of Nigerian crude oil grades going to Europe increasing from 28% in 2011 to about 38% in 2012. A major factor for the growing demand of Nigerian crudes in Europe has been the Free Trade Agreement between Europe and South Korea. It is more profitable under this Agreement to sell North Sea crude oil grades to Korea. Many companies prefer to trade their cargoes in Korea thus creating shortfall in Europe. In addition, the North Sea as a whole is recording annual natural decline from matured field of about 10%.In the same light, Asia\u2019s demand for light sweet grade is raising, stepping up demand for Nigerian grades. India in particular is consistently taking an average of 120,000 barrels per day from Nigeria\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
He further stated that, the Federal Government is adopting appropriate strategies to effectively mitigate the impact of decline in the US markets hinting that \u201cthe number and volume of term contracts with Asian refiners is gradually being increased. Current term volumes to Asian refiners stand at 120,000 barrels per day .In both the short and medium term, a combination of market openings in Europe and Asia will effectively compensate the loss of US market and offer needed support for Nigerian crude oil exports\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery discerning observer will notice that socio-economic challenges which had existed for several decades and which the current Transformation Agenda is effectively tackling are clearly spelt out in the Mid-term report presented to Nigerians by President Goodluck Jonathan a few weeks ago. These challenges include, among others, dependence on oil exports, high recurrent expenditure, high food importation, poor infrastructure, high inflation, falling reserve and rising domestic debt\u201d, he informed.<\/p>\n
While emphasizing that the Nigerian economy ,like other oil dependent ones globally, often suffer from drop in sales and fluctuation in international pricing, Dr. Okupe also said the Jonathan administration has implemented\u00a0 key reforms to reduce dependence on oil and these reforms have resulted in the Agricultural sector alone contributing over 40% to the Gross Domestic Product in two years. Oil exports are now 69% of our total exports as against 91% in 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also on record that this government is currently implementing measures which have considerably reduced incidence of crude oil theft in the last two years. The Nigerian Navy and Maritime agencies have been provided modern security and patrol boats to effective patrol the water ways leading to the apprehension and prosecution of oil thieves. The President has also solicited the co-operation of the United Kingdom, United States and other countries in tracking and apprehending thieves of Nigerian oil. Efforts are also on to stop foreign refiners from buying stolen crude oil from bunkerers. This is a continuous effort which will surely be sustained until the situation is put under control\u201d, he maintained.<\/p>\n
On the issue of high cost of governance, the presidential aide said under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria\u2019s recurrent expenditure dropped from 74% in 2011 to 68% in 2013 and will further go down in the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust three weeks ago, government began the implementation of reforms suggested by the Orosanye committee to further reduce recurrent expenditure by about 1 trillion Naira in the next three years through the rationalization of Agencies and Departments of Government with similar functions\u201d just as according to him, \u201cDomestic Government borrowing declined from 852 billion in 2011 to 588 billion in 2013.Our National debt is 21% of our GDP compared to South Africa (42.7%) Sub Saharan Africa (34.2%) USA (106%) Japan (225%) United Kingdom (90%)\u201d.<\/p>\n
Our foreign reserve, Dr. Okupe said Nigeria has climbed up to almost 50 billion dollars while the exchange rate has been steady.<\/p>\n
Infrastructure wise, he pointed out major roads like the Kano-Maiduguri, Benin-Ore, Abuja-Lokoja, Owerri-Onitsha, Katsina-Daura, East-West road and many others that are rehabilitated or reconstructed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second Niger Bridge has been concessioned and work is in steady progress. The Lagos-Ibadan Express was awarded yesterday at a total cost of 160.7 billion Naira. The multi-lane road project which will be handled by Julius Berger Construction Company and the RCC will consist of 3 lanes on either side up to Sagamu junction and 2 lanes up to Ibadan as well as a fly over and inter-change at the Redemption camp to solve the perennial traffic grid lock on that portion of the road.<\/p>\n
\u201c On the problems of high food import, the Jonathan administration has achieved a reduction on the quantity of\u00a0 importation of rice, a major staple food and dominant import item which drains enormous foreign exchange, from 5.2 metric tons\u00a0 to a little over 2 million metric tons in two years with the ultimate goal of attaining 100% sufficiency by 2015. Wheat imports have reduced from 4.1million metric tons to 3.7 million metric tons within the same period. Sugar import is also on the decline. Despite ravaging floods in 2012, Nigeria did not suffer anticipated food shortage as a result of proactive measures to assist farmers with flood resistant seedlings and dry season farming as 8 million metric tons was added to domestic food supply in 2012 which was 70% above target.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn total, all the above measures have saved Nigeria 857 billion Naira which would have been spent on food imports.\u00a0 In recognition of these and other measures, the Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO recently presented an award to Nigeria and other countries for combating hunger and attaining the first goal of the Millennium Development Goals, three years ahead of the 2015 target date.<\/p>\n
\u201c With these considerations therefore it is unfair and incorrect for anyone to suggest an impending collapse of the economy on the basis of a drop in crude oil sales which is not within the control of any single Nation, without taking into account current efforts by government to\u00a0 diversify the economy as well as fiscal measures which have resulted in inflow of over 14 billion dollar new investments in the non-oil sector of the economy as well as other favorable ratings of the Nigerian economy by International rating agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecently, the United States based Reputation Institute (RI), the world\u2019s foremost Organisation that imparts reputation knowledge and monitors reputation of organizations, places and leaders ranked Nigeria, for the first time in its history, among the top 50 reputable countries out of about 195 independent countries in the world. Some of the criteria used include effective governance and advanced, stable economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these global attestations to the effective management of the Nigerian economy clearly puts a lie to the orchestrated and sustained malicious campaign by the opposition and their persistent and illogical refusal to recognize and accept the unprecedented and ground breaking achievements of the Jonathan administration in just two years of its existence\u201d, he insisted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Contrary to claims in some sections of the opposition political parties that economy of the country is shaky, the presidency has said, the economy is on a sound footing under…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n