National Wire About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories
Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has confirmed that the country loses 1 million barrels of crude oil per day.
Activities of the militants in the Niger Delta region of the country is responsible for the loss which is costing the challenged economy about $43m daily.
Osinbajo who spoke at the maiden quarterly business forum organised by members of the organised private sector and stakeholders at the Presidential Villa, Abuja gave the figure.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said the government has saved billions of Naira from the fuel subsidy removal which is a plus for the economy.
However, the Minister for National Planning, Senator Udo Udo Udoma has warned the country to stop importation of refined petroleum product. According to Udoma, Nigeria must stop importing refined petroleum products in the next two years.
The Finance Minister however called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to lower interest rate to enable the Federal Government to borrow locally to boost the economy.
Adeosun speaking in an interview said Nigeria’s foreign exchange problems won’t be solved easily because of the import driven nature of the country’s economy.
According to her, the government can spend its way out of the recession by investing in infrastructure and enabling good business environment.
“When we are borrowing, the interest rate go up and it increases our cost of debt services and it reduces the amount of money available to spend on capital project,” she said, adding that, “I think the rationale for this is the attempt to manage inflation and the trade-off for the economy now. What is the bigger problem, is it growth or inflation? For me, it is growth. I would rather seek growth. We can manage inflation and we have to have a trade-off and at the moment in the Nigerian economy, growth is the important thing, so let’s go for growth, let’s stimulate the economy together out of recession.”
Continuing Adeosun said, “We’ll lower the interest rate because when the interest rate goes up, it increases the cost of borrowing for businesses and for government. So we do need to have that interest rate regime that we need on the fiscal side.”
Story by Dayo Emmanuel
