2017 budget designed to take Nigeria out of recession — Udoma

By Emmanuel Elebeke
ABUJA—Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr, Udoma Udo Udoma, yesterday, said the 2017 budget was designed to take the country out of recession, assuring that the country would experience the impact.

This came as the Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said the Nigerian economy was gradually coming out of its worst recession in years.

“Nigeria is coming out of recession. We are beginning to see the signs and we will come out to become stronger,” Adeosun said.

They both spoke at an Abuja Town Hall meeting, organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture in Abuja.

Adeosun added that though the administration inherited a bad economy, it had succeeded in cleaning all the mess in the system and had put steps in place to check further revenue leakages.

She said the six per cent to GDP was one of the lowest in the world and as such plans were ongoing to make Nigerians pay commensurate taxes to release more revenue for infrastructure development.

She assured that the government will continue on the part of increasing capital vote to deepen infrastructure development.

In his contribution, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Information Minister, said the administration had fulfilled its campaign promises of providing security, fight against corruption and rebuilding the economy.

FG trains 3,000 Agro Rangers  —Ogbe

On his part, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe, speaking on herdsmen issue, said government had so far trained about 3,000 Agro Rangers in conjunction with the Ministries of Defence and Interior to curb the menace of killer herdsmen across the country with plans to train more.

He said: “We have trained 3,000 Agro rangers in collaboration with Ministries of Defence and Interior to engage the violent herdsmen. Most of the violent herdsmen, 90 per cent  we see in Nigeria are not Nigerians. We will take the matter to AU and World Bank to see how we can discourage open grazing. Ranches are what we need.”

Plan to crash local rice price

He added that government plans to crash the price of local rice to make it affordable for Nigerians.

He said the plan was to protect the interest of local rice farmers and prevent importers of foreign rice from pushing them out of business, adding: “With the new policy of the current administration on rice, the importation of rice into Nigeria dropped from 158,000 tonnes to 58 tonnes in 2016, saving the country about $237.8 million in one year.”

Nigerians are hungry

Meanwhile, there was a mild drama during the question and answer session, when some participants led by human rights activists, refused to drop microphone and shouted at the ministers that “Nigerians are hungry,” urging  them to stop rhetoric and  face the reality of the economy.

Responding, Minister of Agriculture, pleaded for patience and blamed the hardship on failure of past administrations to invest in agriculture.

Activities of Ministry of Power, Works and Housing

On the activities of Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, the minister, Mr Babatunde Fashola, said the ministry created 9,000 direct jobs and 60,000 indirect jobs in the power sector during the 2016 budget implementation process.

In the Works sector, he said about 17,749 jobs were also created, while 68,000 direct jobs were created and 41,400 indirect jobs in the Housing sector.

On housing, Fashola said the administration had completed 1800 mortgage houses through  the Federal Mortgage Bank  and provided loan access to 2,044 civil servants.

NIMASA,cesspool of corruption—Amaechi

Minister of Transport, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, on the programmes of his ministry, said it had commenced dredging work with its equipment from River Niger to Baro Port  at the rate of N100 million, which was initially awarded at the rate of N42 billion by the previous administration.

Amaechi, who described NIMASA as a cesspool of corruption, said radical reform was ongoing to reposition the agency for its original mandate rather than being a contract awarding agency.

Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelama on his part, said the ministry has created the enabling environment for Nigeria to be part of the global market by enhancing the Ease of Doing business policy and engaging the private sector to  drive the process.

 

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