BY: News Peddlers
Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, stated yesterday that the nation's economy is doing better under President Muhammadu Buhari's administration than previous administrations.
She also explained the depletion of the Excess Crude Account, ECA, stating that it had not been funded in a long time.
Mrs. Ahmed made the remarks following yesterday's Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
When asked about the current state of the economy, she replied, "Thank you for that question. First and foremost, let me address the question of whether the administration has done well in terms of the economy. The administration has performed admirably.
“I need to remind us all here that in 2015, the administration came on and met a crisis in the oil and gas sector; we had the first slump in crude oil prices and a very significant slump in crude oil production.
“There was a time the volumes went as low as one million barrels per day. We were able to take measures to reflate the economy and exit recession within three quarters. By the fourth quarter, we were out of recession.
“Secondly, we had a second recession due to COVID-19. That was even a shorter recession and we have seen now up to five quarters of positive growth. So, the economy has been growing, despite very, very difficult circumstances.
“The other thing I need to remind us is that this administration has been able to realize the lowest oil and gas revenue, compared to all previous administrations, but it has also been able to do much more in terms of deployment of infrastructure. So, the administration has done well.”
The minister recalled that $1 billion was withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account in consultation with state governors for the procurement of arms.
“On the issue of the Excess Crude Account, in the past four years, because of volatility in the oil market, we have not had accrual to the account.
“So, what we have had, has been gradually used up for different purposes and it is always used in consultation with the National Economic Council, NEC, that is the governors, because this is a federation account.
“The last approval that was given by the council was the withdrawal of $1billion to enhance security. We have been utilizing that. The last tranch of that has been finally released because deployment to security agencies are based on the contracts executed and its been used strictly for that security purpose. So, the utilization of the account is with the full knowledge of the governors,” she said.
"The assumptions that we made for the next medium-term framework from 2023 to 2025 is that crude oil price will be at $70 BPD for 2023, $66 bpd for 2024, and $62 bpd for 2025," the Minister said following the council's approval of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF.
"Crude oil production is expected to be 1.69 million barrels per day in 2023, and 1.813 million barrels per day in both 2024 and 2025." We also forecast that the nominal GDP of Nigeria's economy will increase to N225.5 trillion, with the non-oil sector contributing 95 percent and the oil sector contributing only 5 percent. And a steady increase from 2024 to 2025, reaching N280.70 trillion in 2025.
"This means that Nigeria retains its position as Africa's largest economy."
SOURCE: VANGUARD