As an average Nigerian i can't really tell if this is a cause for me to be happy or not,all the same kudos to FG.
The nation’s foreign reserve currently
stands at $38 billion, the Coordinating Minister
for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed yesterday.
Speaking at the Public Affairs Forum, in Abuja,
the minister said the economy was stable and the
Gross Domestic product, GDP, was growing at
over 6 per cent in spite of the challenges facing
the nation.
Her words, “One of the key things I want to tell
you is that we have tried to keep this economy
stable under this administration. All these things
you are seeing- the investments in roads, the
investments in industries cannot happen if your
economy lacks stability.
“If you wake up worrying about inflation; if you
wake up worrying about exchange rate, you know
Nigerians watch the exchange rate every single
day. If you wake up worrying about no growth
then you cannot even talk about investing in the
sector.
“So the number one task that every government
delivers in every country- America, UK, Nigeria- is
stability. One thing you have to say for the
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is
that it has been able to deliver on macro-
economic stability for the past three years.
“The exchange rate, yes, it has gone up and down,
it fluctuates, but it has been relatively stable. The
inflation rate has come down from about 12 per
cent last year to about 8.5 per cent. The reserves
are at $38 billion today and enough to cushion us
for 5 months. We have been able to put a little
more into the Excess Crude Account”.
The minister described Nigeria’s fiscal deficit as
“one of the lowest in the world- just over 1 per
cent of GDP”, adding that many countries, even in
Europe, run fiscal deficits of between 5 to 10 per
cent.
On borrowing , she noted that Nigerians voiced
their objections to large borrowing and that as
such the President Goodluck Jonathan
administration decided to maintain a low debt
profile.
“By 2010, we borrowed N1.3 trillion to help
finance our spending. We determined under the
president who said Nigerians don’t want
borrowing, let’s bring it down. Today do you know
what our borrowing is, N571 billion. We will
continue to take it down, even if it is by N1, we
will continue trending down. The debt stock is
very high because of past borrowing but will
continue to bring it down. That means we must
be prudent in the way we spend and we must
also be very fast to try to organize additional
revenues”.
Non-oil revenue
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said that the nation was too
dependent on oil revenue and that with the falling
oil price in the international market, coupled with
declining crude oil production, expanding the non-
oil revenue base had become inevitable.
Her words, “We are too depending on oil. The
price of oil is now coming down. The quantities
are also not as large as they used to be. So we
have to plan differently. That is why we have to
rely more on non-oil.”
“I am convinced that this economy can generate
additional $ 3 billion that can help us finance our
expenditures”.
She pointed out that Nigeria has a big
responsibility, not just for itself but for the whole
West African Sub-region and the entire African
continent.
“We form 77 per cent of west African GDP, we
form 25 per cent of Africa’s GDP. It means that if
things don’t work well in Nigeria, a quarter of the
African GDP is affected”, she said, adding, “that is
why this administration is not only thinking of
what we will deliver here but how to be a
responsible African citizen and global citizen in
the way it delivers for its home people”.
Culled from Vanguard.
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