The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Friday disclosed that the Federal Government has started putting in place measures that will lead to economic recovery.
Ahmed, while speaking at the European Union-Nigeria business summit said the process will see the country’s economy grow by three percent in 2017.
According to the junior Minister, Nigerian government is determined to use the current economic challenges to reform the country’s economy to a sustainable growth.
She said,“My colleague, Senator Udo Udoma and I, were supposed to be here yesterday, but we are conducting at this moment a retreat for developing a new medium term, national economic plan that we call the recovery plan.
“As you know, the country is in a recession; high unemployment rate, high inflation rate, and the result of where we are today is that we are managing three major shocks.
“Crude oil price fall, fall in production, as well as the weakening of our currency. These negative developments have caused some terrible consequences in form of the insurgency activities in the Niger-Delta region as well as the terrorist activities in the north-eastern part of Nigeria.
“The consequences of this have been dire in terms of human lives, the local economy as well as social economic lives and the environment.
“It is my believe that the measures we have taken so far will in no distant future yield desired results, and in this wise, we have targeted a real GDP growth of three percent and four percent by the years 2017 and 2019.
“The government, we have started, just yesterday, a planning process for a new economic recovery plan spanning four year; 2017 to 2020. This plan will outline the growth trajectory over the medium term, and lay a solid foundation for structural reform of our economy.
Ahmed, had recently claimed that past administrations of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar Adua and Goodluck Jonathan had good economic plans for Nigeria, but lacked the political will to implement them.
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