FG'S EFFORTS YIELDING RESULTS IN ECONOMY, SAYS UDOMA

MINISTER of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udoma says the announcement that Nigeria has exited recession is an indication that the various policies of government towards reflating the economy, as set out in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), are yielding fruits, and confidence is returning to the Nigerian economy.

He said the second quarter GDP report was a testimony to the fact that government is moving in the right economic direction.

The Minister noted that two major objectives were in focus when the ERGP was launched by the President early this year – to get the economy out of recession and then 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.

The minister noted that the 0.55 percentage growth is 2.04 percent higher than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016 (–1.49%) and higher by 1.46% points from the rate recorded in the preceding quarter (revised to –0.91% from –0.52%). Quarter on quarter, real GDP growth was 3.23%.During the quarter, aggregate GDP stood at N26,986,005.20million in nominal terms, compared to N23,547,466.91 million in the second quarter of 2016, resulting in a Nominal GDP growth of 14.60%

“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.

The Minister pointed out that the major focus of government was to reflate the economy through spending in strategic sectors like infrastructure, agriculture, solid minerals etc., to galvanise economic activities and empower the people.

Efforts, he said, have also been concentrated on increasing revenue generation to meet with the challenges of the economy which was why government has been giving attention, among other things, to the challenges of the Niger Delta region.

The Minister, however, admitted that it was still early days as much more work needs to be done to ensure that the growth is sustained. Therefore, government will continue to pursue aggressively the implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan. Government is also working on improving the ease of doing business to attract more investments.

While appreciating the efforts of all concerned in the drive towards the country’s economic recovery, the Minister said government will require the cooperation of all Nigerians to enhance the recovery rate and ensure the achievement of the objectives of the ERGP.