Tag: Adeosun

THE West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has refuted comments credited to its Registrar, Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, that the council will give the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, a free form to rewrite her O’Level Mathematics paper.

The story was an alleged reaction of Uwadiae to claims by Mrs. Adeosun that the council made N16 billion on sale of forms, and got N6 billion subvention from the Federal Government, which she added up to N24 billion instead of N22 billion.

In a statement, the Head, Public Affairs Department, WAEC Headquarters, Accra Ghana, Mr. Abiodun Aduloju, noted that the story, which has been circulating online, was false.

He said Uwadiae, who works at the WAEC Headquarters in Ghana, did not grant any interview.

The statement said: “The publication is worrisome and embarrassing to WAEC, as the registrar did not make the statement credited to him and could not have responded as purported to an allegation in which the name of his organisation was not mentioned. The registrar does not reside in Nigeria and has not granted a press interview or engaged in an informal chat with any Nigerian media representative or authorised anyone to speak on his behalf concerning the minister’s statement.”

Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun yesterday branded  the planned N1.8 trillion capital investment by the Federal Government in the economy this years as key to driving economic growth.

Adeosun told participants at the KPMG Nigeria’s CFO Forum and Survey Launch that a spending stimulus was a must  to reflate the economy and avoid recession.

 The minister, in a  keynote address,  said  Nigeria’s GDP in 2015 was the lowest in the last 15 years, pointing  out that even whilst oil prices were high, GDP had been falling.

 She said despite all the challenges, the economy looked strong  for the medium term and that if the planned investments in capital were undertaken, the GDP growth projections showed that Nigeria would become a leading global economy.

She said  government would work to ensure that consumption from the country’s  huge population would drive internal growth across a number of key sectors.

 The minister recalled that a similar stimulus had actually been provided in the global downturn in 2008, pointing out however, that the stimulus now needed would be strategically targeted at investments that would support a diversified economic growth.

 She said the proposed 2016 budget would finance investments in key infrastructure, particularly in transport, power, health, housing and education sectors.

 ”These investments would create jobs with the various contractors that would execute the projects,” she said.

Public investment,she added,would  attract further investment from the private sector and that investments in power and transport would increase the competitive position of Nigerian businesses.

 She said that the ongoing “fiscal housekeeping”, including  sanitising the payroll, which to date, has unveiled over 23,000 possible ghost workers and the creation of the Efficiency Unit was a key strategy in managing recurrent expenditure, adding that the focus on improving non-oil revenue collections was an important strategic objective.

 On the planned borrowing, the minister explained that government was seeking the lowest cost of funds and was therefore consulting with multilateral agencies, which offered concessional rates of interest as low as 1.5 per cent before looking at the commercial Eurobond Market.

 She said that the financing strategy was to restructure much of the existing debts which have short maturity and align it with the investment plans of the government in line with its Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

The Federal Government is determined to reverse the downturn in the economy, recover the slowing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and forestall the remote possibility of recession through the full implementation of the 2016 budget, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has said.

 In an article, titled, ‘ Nigeria’s Economy: The Road To Recovery,’  she said the focus of the current administration is to stimulate the economy and achieve a real GDP growth rate of 4.2 per cent through the implementation of the draft 2016 budget, adding that the government is also determined to  reduce the cost of governance, extract efficiency in public service and enhance revenue collection.

She said the administration plans to increase government expenditure on transport, roads, housing and power, with a view to achieving a substantial increase in gross capital formation and to fund the budget deficit and the negative trade balance in a cost effective and efficient manner, which would keep the government within the acceptable debt sustainable ratio that is expected of most emerging economies.

 The minister, who acknowledged the impact of the sliding oil prices on the nation’s economy, said the main macroeconomic objective, “ is to use a government expenditure-led growth strategy in 2016, combined with a stimulant approach based on injections of more efficiently collected revenues and blocking of leakages.  The combination of these fiscal injections will have a catalytic multiplier effect on the GDP growth rate.”

 Mrs. Adeosun said the budget deficit is estimated at N2.2trn, or 2.16 per cent of GDP based on an estimated benchmark oil price of $38per barrel, pointing out that in view of present realities and the dynamics in the global oil markets, ”we have braced ourselves for the probability of a further decline in oil prices.  Even though we believe the average price of oil in 2016 will recover, we have developed a shadow budgeting process with tactical responses to build in the flexibility in our borrowing needs. This way, we will not undermine the fundamental principle of the economic stimulus model used by countries facing a contraction in economic activities and growth.”

 She assured of the current administration’s commitment to go ahead with its plans to improve on infrastructure despite the present oil price slide. “We are firmly committed to the countercyclical budget expenditure model, therefore, we will not reduce our investment in infrastructure. Our deficit will expand by N0.8trillion to N3trillion which will be 3per cent of GDP.  This is still within the comfort zone for the international rating agencies,” she said.