The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has claimed that despite the current outlook of the economy and dwindling naira value, the Nigerian economy under the Muhammdu Buhari administration is better when compared to previous ones.
She made the assertion while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
When asked to compare the economy Buhari’s administration met and its present state, Ahmed said that the nation’s economy is doing well against the belief in some quarters, saying that despite realizing the lowest revenues from oil at a time, the administration was able to do more on infrastructure.
“Thank you for that question. First of all, let me address a question on the issue of the economy, as to whether the administration has done well. The administration has done very well.
“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.”
She also explained the depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA), saying that it had not been funded for a while.
The minister recalled that the sum of $1 billion was withdrawn from it for the procurement of arms in consultation with state governors.
She said: “On the issue of the Excess Crude Account, in the past four years, because of volatility in the cause oil market, we have not had accrual to the excess cause 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, that is the governors, because this is a federation account.
“The last approval that was given by the council was the withdrawal of $1 billion to enhance security. We have been utilizing that. The last trench of that has been finally released because deployment to security agencies is based on the contracts executed and it’s been used strictly for that security purpose.
“So, the utilization of the account is with the full knowledge of the governors.”
On the Council’s approval of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, the Minister 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 pbd for 2024 and $62 bpd for 2025.
“Crude oil production is projected to be 1.69million bpd for 2023 and 1.813million bpd for both 2024 as well as 2025. We have also projected that the nominal GDP, the size of Nigeria’s economy will rise up to N225.5trillion with 95% of this contribution by the non-oil sector while the oil sector will contribute only 5%. And some steady increase from 2024 2025 to reach up to N280.70trillion in 2025.
“This means that Nigeria continues to retain its position as the largest economy in Africa.”
