The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeousn, has assured Nigerians that the
\ncurrent economic recession the nation was experiencing will not be
\nprolonged.<\/p>\n
She gave the assurance on Friday in Abuja while addressing a news conference.<\/p>\n
She said that there was a strategic plan by the administration to see that
\nthe recession ended soon and also ensure that the economy recovered fully.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a strategic plan that will take us out of the recession we have
\nfound ourselves in; we want to make sure the recession is as short as
\npossible because we do not want a prolonged recession.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what we are looking at we do not think that it will be a prolonged
\nrecession; we think that some of the initiatives that we are working on
\nwill now begin to bear fruits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are on course and are confident that the plan we have put together
\nwill work and put the economy back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a long term plan that would reposition the economy so that we do
\nnot go into this boom and burst circles that are driven by the oil price.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economy has to be more resilient than that so that we do not find
\nourselves back where we are.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
She said that although there was no specific date to end the recession,
\nthe fact that there were measures in place was enough indication that the
\nend of the recession had begun and that Nigeria would come out stronger.<\/p>\n
Listing some of the measures the administration had taken to address the
\nsituation, she said that since the budget was released in May, over N420
\nbillion had been released and cash backed for capital projects.<\/p>\n
She said that the largest sector that the money was spent on was Power,
\nWorks and Housing.<\/p>\n
She also said that a lot had been done in the defence sector to rebuild
\nthe capability of the army, especially on efforts in the North East.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgriculture has received significant funding because of the time
\nsensitivity of agriculture and because of the fact that food prices were
\nrising, we needed to intervene so that we could get food prices down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is activity resuming on roads, power projects and health projects
\nand we have released money to water resources and solid minerals.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Adeosun also said that there was a cash plan to release another N350
\nbillion which would go into the various MDAs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe focus is going to be similar, however, there would also be funding of
\nabout N60 billion for the Special Intervention Programme and that is very
\nimportant in putting money into people\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school feeding programme and the N-Power teachers corps we will cash
\nback today as part of the N350 billion additional release which would take
\nour total capital spending to about N700 billion.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
She also said that N50 billion was set monthly as budget support plan for
\nsome state governments from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee
\n(FAAC) to support them with additional money to enable them to pay
\nsalaries.<\/p>\n
She said that the loan had been on for three months for the interested
\nstates because some states which were buoyant decided not to participate.<\/p>\n
On recovery of assets, Adeosun said that the committee was in the process
\nof collating with the non-cash assets like farmlands, vehicles and houses
\nand that a fixed asset register would soon be opened to determine their
\nvalue.<\/p>\n
She said that the jewelries were from different locations and were being
\nbrought together to determine the market value and that the next line of
\naction would be decided by the committee.<\/p>\n
Adeosun explained that the present recruitment by the police and some
\nother government agencies were made possible by the reduction of ghost
\nworkers.<\/p>\n
She added that the savings that were made from the exercise would enable
\nfunding for the new recruitment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometime in January, personnel cost was N165 billion along with pension
\ncost, but so far so good; we have reduced, through the removal of about
\n40,000 ghost workers, the personnel cost by around N10 billion per month.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have saved about N100 billion this year.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
She said that though the times were tough, there was hope for Nigerians,
\nadding that issues around infrastructure were the biggest problems of
\nNigeria which resulted in high cost of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest problem we have is not wages but the cost of living which is
\ntoo high so it is not how much money you have but it is what it costs you
\nto live.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem we have is that many of the things that people are spending
\nmoney on are the things government should be doing like roads, power and
\nso on.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we have to address these things because that is what will really make
\nimpact for the average working Nigerian and so when you address the
\ninfrastructure you address the cost of living and that is what this
\ngovernment is working on.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeousn, has assured Nigerians that the current economic recession the nation was experiencing will not be prolonged. She gave the assurance on Friday in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n