Nigeria’s recovery from economic recession indicates that various policies of government towards re-flating the economy are on track, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma has said
Senator Udoma said the Federal Government is upbeat that the measures as articulated in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) are already yielding fruits.
He said government is also positive that huge confidence is returning to the national economy on the part of the local and foreign investors.
However, the Minister admitted that it is still early days to jubilate because a lot of work still needs to be done to ensure the growth is sustained, assuring that government will continue to pursue an aggressive implementation of the ERGP in the overall interest of Nigeria’s sustainable economic growth and development.
Senator Udoma also gave the assurance that government is working on improving the ease of doing business to attract more investments into the country.
Reacting to the Second Quarter Report on the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Minister said it was a testimony to the fact that government is moving in the right economic direction.
He 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.
According to the Minister, “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.
He said the major focus of government was to re-flate the economy through spending in strategic sectors like infrastructure, agriculture, solid minerals etc., to galvanize economic activities and empower the people, adding that efforts 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.
Senator Udoma stated that efforts in this direction yielded real growth in the oil sector by 1.64% (year-on-year) in the second quarter of 2017 representing an increase of 13.26% relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter in 2016. Growth also increased by 17.24% when compared to the first quarter of 2017.
The NBS report indicates that in the second quarter of 2017, the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 0.55% (year-on-year) in real terms, showing the emergence of the economy from recession after five consecutive quarters of contraction since Q1 2016.
The growth is 2.04 per cent 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 per cent while the oil sector grew by 7.52% in the second quarter of 2017 and its contribution to total GDP in the second quarter of 2017 is 8.89 per cent.
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 per cent
He expressed happiness the recorded growth is broad-based, as the non-oil sector showed improvements in the last two quarters with the Agriculture sector continued growth in 2017, recording a 3.01 per cent growth in the second quarter of 2017.
The Minister also noted that Industry recorded positive growth of 1.45 per cent during the same period while manufacturing which has been recording negative growth for most parts of 2015 and throughout 2016, turned positive in the first quarter of 2017 and increased by 0.64 per cent in the second quarter.
In appreciating the collective efforts of Stakeholders in driving towards the country’s economic recovery, Udoma said government will require the cooperation of all Nigerians to enhance the recovery rate and ensure achievement of the ERGP’s objectives.
