Minister of Information Lai Mohammed yesterday attributed
Nigeria’s exit from recession to a conscientious effort and not by
accident.
Mohammed said the country had been on the path to recession
since mid-2014 due to a combination of factors, including the total
dependence on a mono product – oil – and the failure to save during
the boom years.
The country slipped into recession in the second quarter of last
year.
Speaking at the fourth annual conference of the Association of
Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria in Kano, the
minister said: “Taking Nigeria out of recession did not happen by
accident. It is the culmination of months of hard work by the
administration and fidelity to its well-articulated economic
policies, especially the strategic implementation of the Economic
Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) that was launched on April 5.
“Of course, as you all know, a recession is generally defined as
two consecutive quarters of negative growth in Gross Domestic
Product (GDP, which measures the economic performance of a country
by how much production of goods and services it achieves, usually
over the course of a year).
“But things are looking up now. For Nigeria to be out of
recession means the Administration has taken some right steps that
have culminated in the good news that we are celebrating now. It
didn’t just happen.”
The minister listed some of the various impactful programmes of
the administration. They include the National Home Grown School
Feeding Programme, which currently feeds 3,065,000 pupils in 14
states and employs 36,000 cooks across the country.
The Conditional Cash Transfer that has seen about over 30,000
households benefit from the N5,000 monthly stipend; the Government
Enterprise and Empowerment Programme under which about 120,000
people have benefited from cooperative loans; and the N-power that
has employed 200,000 people.
“This positive growth”, the minister stated, “is attributable to
both the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy. Growth in the oil
sector, which has been negative since Q4 2015, was positive in Q2
2017. It rose by 1.64 per cent as compared to -15.60 in Q1 2017, an
increase of up to 17 percentage points.
“The non-oil sector grew by 0.45 per cent in Q2 2017, a second
successive quarterly growth after growing 0.72 per cent in Q1 2017.
In particular, improvement in the non-oil sector was driven
principally by strong growth in agriculture and solid minerals
sector, and reversal in the previous contraction of the
manufacturing and construction sectors. This shows that the
government’s economic diversification programme is working.”
The minister listed other positive developments as a fall in the
inflation rate from 18 per cent to 16 per cent as of July 2017; the
rise in exports, coupled with a decrease in imports, which brought
the country’s trade balance to ?719.4 billion, up from ?671.3
billion; increase in capital inflow that brought the total value of
capital imported into Nigeria in the second quarter of 2017 to
$1,792.3 million, representing a growth of 95.02 per cent; increase
in foreign reserves to a 30-month high of $31.8 billion in July
2017; and appreciation in exchange rate from N520/$ as at 20
February 2017 to N362/$ as at 17th August 2017.”
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo
Udoma noted that two major objectives were in focus when the ERGP
was launched by the President to get the economy out of recession
and put it on the path of sustained inclusive and diversified
growth.
“Now that we have accomplished the first task, attention will
now be on growing the economy as rapidly as we can,” he said.
“We are happy that people are beginning to see the results of
the efforts we have been putting through in the last two years to
get the economy back on track and to place it on the path of growth
and sustained development,” Udoma said,adding that as the economy
continues to grow, the people will feel the impact of the
growth.
He pointed out that the major focus of government was to reflate
the economy through spending in strategic sectors, such as
infrastructure, agriculture, solid minerals etc., to galvanise
economic activities and empower the people.
Efforts, he said, were concentrated on increasing revenue
generation to meet with the challenges of the economy which was why
government had been giving attention to, among other things, the
challenges of the Niger Delta.
Efforts in this direction yielded real growth in the oil sector
by 1.64% (year-on-year) in the second quarter of 2017 representing
an increase of 13.26% relative to the rate recorded in the
corresponding quarter in 2016. Growth also increased by 17.24% when
compared to the first quarter of 2017. Quarter on quarter, the oil
sector grew by 7.52% in the second quarter of 2017 and the
contribution to the total GDP in the second quarter of 2017 is
8.89%., according to the NBS report.
Udoma said it was gratifying to note that the growth recorded is
broad-based, as the non-oil sector showed improvements in the last
two quarters. For instance, Agriculture sector continued to grow,
recording a 3.01% growth in the second quarter of 2017.
He also noted that Industry recorded positive growth of 1.45%
during the same period while manufacturing which has been recording
negative growth for most parts of 2015 and throughout 2016, turned
positive in the first quarter of 2017 and increased by 0.64% in the
second quarter.
Udoma, however, admitted that it was still early days as much
more work needs to be done to ensure that the growth is
sustained.
Minister of Information Lai Mohammed yesterday attributed
Nigeria’s exit from recession to a conscientious effort and not by
accident.
Mohammed said the country had been on the path to recession
since mid-2014 due to a combination of factors, including the total
dependence on a mono product – oil – and the failure to save during
the boom years.
The country slipped into recession in the second quarter of last
year.
Speaking at the fourth annual conference of the Association of
Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria in Kano, the
minister said: “Taking Nigeria out of recession did not happen by
accident. It is the culmination of months of hard work by the
administration and fidelity to its well-articulated economic
policies, especially the strategic implementation of the Economic
Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) that was launched on April 5.
“Of course, as you all know, a recession is generally defined as
two consecutive quarters of negative growth in Gross Domestic
Product (GDP, which measures the economic performance of a country
by how much production of goods and services it achieves, usually
over the course of a year).
“But things are looking up now. For Nigeria to be out of
recession means the Administration has taken some right steps that
have culminated in the good news that we are celebrating now. It
didn’t just happen.”
The minister listed some of the various impactful programmes of
the administration. They include the National Home Grown School
Feeding Programme, which currently feeds 3,065,000 pupils in 14
states and employs 36,000 cooks across the country.
The Conditional Cash Transfer that has seen about over 30,000
households benefit from the N5,000 monthly stipend; the Government
Enterprise and Empowerment Programme under which about 120,000
people have benefited from cooperative loans; and the N-power that
has employed 200,000 people.
“This positive growth”, the minister stated, “is attributable to
both the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy. Growth in the oil
sector, which has been negative since Q4 2015, was positive in Q2
2017. It rose by 1.64 per cent as compared to -15.60 in Q1 2017, an
increase of up to 17 percentage points.
“The non-oil sector grew by 0.45 per cent in Q2 2017, a second
successive quarterly growth after growing 0.72 per cent in Q1 2017.
In particular, improvement in the non-oil sector was driven
principally by strong growth in agriculture and solid minerals
sector, and reversal in the previous contraction of the
manufacturing and construction sectors. This shows that the
government’s economic diversification programme is working.”
The minister listed other positive developments as a fall in the
inflation rate from 18 per cent to 16 per cent as of July 2017; the
rise in exports, coupled with a decrease in imports, which brought
the country’s trade balance to ?719.4 billion, up from ?671.3
billion; increase in capital inflow that brought the total value of
capital imported into Nigeria in the second quarter of 2017 to
$1,792.3 million, representing a growth of 95.02 per cent; increase
in foreign reserves to a 30-month high of $31.8 billion in July
2017; and appreciation in exchange rate from N520/$ as at 20
February 2017 to N362/$ as at 17th August 2017.”
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo
Udoma noted that two major objectives were in focus when the ERGP
was launched by the President to get the economy out of recession
and put it on the path of sustained inclusive and diversified
growth.
“Now that we have accomplished the first task, attention will
now be on growing the economy as rapidly as we can,” he said.
“We are happy that people are beginning to see the results of
the efforts we have been putting through in the last two years to
get the economy back on track and to place it on the path of growth
and sustained development,” Udoma said,adding that as the economy
continues to grow, the people will feel the impact of the
growth.
He pointed out that the major focus of government was to reflate
the economy through spending in strategic sectors, such as
infrastructure, agriculture, solid minerals etc., to galvanise
economic activities and empower the people.
Efforts, he said, were concentrated on increasing revenue
generation to meet with the challenges of the economy which was why
government had been giving attention to, among other things, the
challenges of the Niger Delta.
Efforts in this direction yielded real growth in the oil sector
by 1.64% (year-on-year) in the second quarter of 2017 representing
an increase of 13.26% relative to the rate recorded in the
corresponding quarter in 2016. Growth also increased by 17.24% when
compared to the first quarter of 2017. Quarter on quarter, the oil
sector grew by 7.52% in the second quarter of 2017 and the
contribution to the total GDP in the second quarter of 2017 is
8.89%., according to the NBS report.
Udoma said it was gratifying to note that the growth recorded is
broad-based, as the non-oil sector showed improvements in the last
two quarters. For instance, Agriculture sector continued to grow,
recording a 3.01% growth in the second quarter of 2017.
He also noted that Industry recorded positive growth of 1.45%
during the same period while manufacturing which has been recording
negative growth for most parts of 2015 and throughout 2016, turned
positive in the first quarter of 2017 and increased by 0.64% in the
second quarter.
Udoma, however, admitted that it was still early days as much
more work needs to be done to ensure that the growth is
sustained.
Read more https://nairalaw.com/govt-policies-yielding-fruits-say-ministers/