News South Asia

Despite facing criticisms and attacks for its policies over the past four years, the Federal Government, Thursday, said the transmission economic management apparatus to the incoming government next month would be smooth and seamless.

 

The  Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy(CME), Dr. (Mrs.), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who gave the assurance while speaking to African Banker magazine in Washington DC, the United States of America, stated that despite having the toughest opposition, the Jonathan administration has left a legacy of an economy with very strong fundamentals and would therefore want his successor to build and improve on the foundation already laid.

 

“Opposition was very tough under President Jonathan but that is the beauty of democracy,” she stated.

 

She, however, said the presence of a high powered economic team of APC at this year’s IMF/World Bank meeting in America ahead of the May 29 handover was an indication that it would take the country’s economic management functions very seriously.

 

The Minister listed some of the legacies of the outgoing administration to include a deficit budget of less than 2 per cent of GDP, a single digit inflation that has been sustained for about two years, a growth rate of about 4.8 per cent, debt to GDP ratio of about 14 per cent and Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) that is rated second in the world on transparency.

 

The CME further explained that despite the smallness of its portfolio, Nigeria’s SWF has continued to invest in infrastructure like roads, bridges and gas projects considered critical to the nation’s economic growth.

 

She also described the establishment of the Mortgage Refinance Company of Nigeria (MRCN) that aims at making long term funds available to finance housing delivery to the country’s estimated 17 million population and the setting up of a development finance institution to meet the funding needs of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) considered the engine room of growth for the economy as clear indications that the outgoing government was deeply committed to leaving a legacy of strong and inclusive economic growth for Nigerians.

 

Okonjo-Iweala further pointed out that government’s recognition that it’s growth trajectory was not adequately impacting the citizens through job creation, necessitated its decision to revolutionise agriculture, which, she said, created lots of jobs and boosted food supply value chain that has reduced the nation’s food import bill drastically,  adding that other job creating initiatives were also adopted to achieve a more inclusive growth in the economy.

 

On alleged asset sell off, the Minister said that while it was a globally accepted practice for countries to sell part of their assets to bring in significant assets to rebuild their fiscal buffers in times of crisis, Nigeria was yet to attain the level where such options could be considered given that her external reserves were still robust at between $29 and 30 billion.

 

According to her, part of the major challenges that impacted negatively on the business of governance under President Jonathan was petroleum products’ theft and vandalism of pipelines, which also affected government’s revenue and savings.