The Federal Government has said it will not rest on its oars but sustain and maintained momentum of the various initiatives put in place for economic recovery.
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President Mr. Laolu Akande stated this Thursday while addressing the Fourth Economic Communication Workshop for selected journalists at the Treasures Hotels and Suites, Abuja.
The theme of the workshop was: “Budget, Presidential Executive Orders and Industrial Competitiveness as enablers of economic growth”.
Although the country is not yet where government wants it to be, Akande said President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo are determined to ensure full economic growth for the country.
“A lot more is going to happen and the momentum is gathering for economic reforms. This leadership is committed to change and reform. We hope to wrap up and make impact on the people economically,” he stressed.
He said there will be more diversification towards the non-oil sector of the economy next year and that government expects more revenue from this sector than from the oil sector.
Akande noted that it was in recognition of what the government achieved through its various reforms that made the World Bank to rank Nigeria among the 10 most reforming countries of the world.
Asked why government was requesting loans in spite of huge funds recovered from looters of the nation’s treasury, Akande said not much has been recovered to stop government from taking these concessionary loans that are meant for infrastructural growth.
He, however, explained that there is a line in the yearly budget, like in 2017 and 2018 where government stated how much it is expecting to get from the recovered loot but that it is put back in the budget as income.
He gave assurance that the whistleblower in respect of the Osborne, Ikoyi funds will be paid before the end of next week, notwithstanding it will be the largest pay-out to be made by the Federal Government.
“The integrity of the whistleblowing programme is very important to us and we will not do anything not to scuttle it.
“There is so much difference between this government and the last. This is one government that is doing so much with much less,” he said.
The vice4 president’s spokesman said government is going to improve on the ease of doing business in the country.
He said this explains why Vice Osinbajo has been going round the country so that government agencies can see themselves as facilitators so that small-scale industries can do well in business.
The Senior Special Adviser to the Vice President said the Home Grown Feeding Scheme of the government is now operating in 19 states and involving about four million school children, adding that the target is to attain five million school children by the end of the year.
He said to date, no fewer than 267,000 small-scale enterprises (SMES) have been engaged while another 98,000 have been formalised by government.
He said the uncertainties in the economy led to the collapse of the capital market in the past.
“But the situation today is that Nigeria has become investors’ destination as efforts by government continue to attract investors. We would see inflow into capital market and this will increase employment,” he said.
The Technical Adviser to the Vice President on Economic Matters, Mr. Fola Adejuwon, who remarked that inflation has been trending down within the last nine months, gave assurance that Nigerians would see the best side of the economy by January.
“We are going to see significant growth and the trend is targeted at households. The purchasing power of households is going to grow and will buy more than it used to buy. All economic reforms will percolate into individual expenses of households,” he said.
Adejuwon, who admitted that it has been difficult for enterprises to flourish under the present interest rate regime, disclosed that all efforts are now geared towards reversing the trend, adding that the MPR, which is now 14 per cent, will be further reduced next year.
He said the Federal government is also making efforts to reduce the risk of lending and defaults so that banks will be in position to reduce interest rates on loans.
Adejuwon disclosed that Development Bank of Nigeria is coming upstream while Bank of Industries (BOI), Bank of Agriculture and others will be recapitalised in next fiscal year to enable them lend at single digit interest rate.