Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, have given the assurance that the government would continue to maintain the positive growth outlook of the country.
The top government officials gave the assurance on Sunday during a joint press briefing at the end of the 2018 International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meeting in Washington DC, United States.
Adeosun noted that the present growth outlook of the country contrasted with the outlook in 2015, adding that the inflation rate of the country was slowing down while the foreign reserves were rising.
Her words: “We are confident that if we diligently implement our economic plan, we will grow the economy. We have room to grow but other countries do not have rooms to grow.
“By 2019, the growth will be far more robust than the present level in 2018. We are therefore very optimistic in sustaining Nigeria’s economic growth. We are going to use this opportunity to grow our fiscal buffers, particularly aggressively growing our revenue base.
“The Administration has succeeded in building macroeconomic resilience for Nigeria, particularly revising the funding mix, rebuilding fiscal buffers, enhancing foreign exchange reserves and focusing on import substitution strategies.”
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“We must make sure that every money that is earned comes in. We will drive the process of improving governance.”
On the nation’s domestic debt, Adeosun said the government was refinancing the inherited debt portfolio from short term Treasury Bills to longer tenured debt which had resulted in huge savings and reduction in costs of funds for the government.
She also said that the present administration had raised the tax payers’ base from 13 million in 2015 to 17 million as at 2018.
She confirmed the recovery of the sum of US$322,515,931.83 Abacha funds from the Swiss Government into a special account in the CBN.
According to her, the fund had been earmarked for the National Social Safety Nets programme of the government.
