Nigeria will bounce back to positive growth next year
The Federal Government says it is working out a stimulus package that will take the country’s economy out of the global recession and take it to positive growth in 2021.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, told journalists Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, after the meeting of the Economic Sustainability Committee led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that the final reports on the stimulus package would be ready in the next couple of days and submit it to the President.
Mrs Ahmed said that the prediction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Nigeria would go into a negative growth of 3.4 per cent next year was based on the assessment of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Nigeria.
The IMF had predicted that the global economy would go into recession in 2020 as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that is ravaging nations of the world.
But Mrs Ahmed said that “if we take all these measures that we are planning now, we will be able to, by 2021, go back into positive growth. That is why this is very important.”
She said that the stimulus package being worked out by the Economic Sustainability Committee, would be approved by President Muhammadu Buhari before it would be announced to Nigerians.
“But remember that the president already announced an initial package of N500 billion. So now, how that N500 billion would be used and the subsequent intervention, which we will be rolling out, when funds from multi-lateral institutions come in, is what this committee is working on.
“We are looking at various ways and means to support each sector of the economy, providing for each sector clear interventions that would be designed for the primary purpose of creating jobs and ensuring that businesses stay afloat during these difficult times.”
