The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma has said the implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), is improving state of the economy.
In a statement, Udoma, who was speaking at the presentation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Regional Economic Outlook Report for Sub-Africa, said actions taken since the launch of the plan in early 2017 have helped to build buffers and appropriate measures to safeguard the economy from any external shocks.
He recalled that following the collapse of crude oil prices from 2014, which culminated in the country’s economy sliding into recession in 2016, government developed a robust Medium-Term Plan – the ERGP, which was launched in early 2017, which focuses on five strategic areas namely macroeconomic stability, economic diversification and growth drivers, competitiveness, social inclusion and jobs, as well as governance and other enablers.
The minister said the positive trends recorded in the country’s economic indicators since the launch of the ERGP indicate that the plan is working.
He pointed out that the implementation of the various initiatives in the Plan resulted in moving the country’s economy out of recession to a positive growth path. “Our GDP grew from -1.6 per cent in 2016 to 1.5 per cent by the second quarter of this year, with the non-oil sector growing at 2.05 per cent – the highest growth in the sector since the fourth quarter of 2015”.
He was confident that the country’s growth projection of 2.1 per cent by the end of the year will be realized. Noting that the IMF’s projection for Nigeria is 1.9 per cent this year, slightly lower than Nigeria’s projection, the Minister however pointed out that given Nigeria’s growth for 2017 which was only 0.8 per cent, even if Nigeria achieves the IMF projection of 1.9 per cent this year, it is a significant improvement on the 2017 numbers. The direction of movement in Nigeria is clearly very positive.
“As you have seen, these actions that we have taken have helped us to build buffers and appropriate measures to safeguard us from any external shocks,” he stressed.
Referring to the recent IMF Report which indicated that one of the downside risks to growth prospects in the sub-region is security, the Minister said the Buhari Administration had long listed tackling security as one of its three policy thrusts.