The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday assured that the country would begin to feel the fresh air of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration as from this year, 2013.
She gave this assurance in an interview monitored by DailyPost on Cable News Network, CNN with Christiane Amanpour .
According to her, “2013 is going to be a game changer and a turning point because this is the year we are going to produce results, and we are already producing results within the administration.
“First, on the economic side, I just want to say that macro-economic stability has been restored. Now, nobody should minimise that. Remember the two last decades in Africa -the 1980s and 1990s – when there were so many instabilities that people could not focus on areas that could create jobs.”
Okonjo-Iweala said the country was projecting 6.5 per cent GDP growth this year, compared to an average five per cent for other African countries.
“I just want to say that when you mentioned GDP growth, in my country, people will immediately say you can’t eat growth because we have challenges of unemployment, we need to create more jobs, we have challenges of inclusion and there are problems of inequality; all those are challenges we face,” she said.
Speaking on the irregular power supply in the country, she admitted that it was absolutely true that the country is facing several challenges, but will soon come out of it, considering that no magic could have been done in just few years of Nigeria’s democracy as the country had suffered under several military eras in the past with no infrastructure on ground before democracy.
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