The Federal Executive Council
(FEC) yesterday said former vice president Atiku Abubakar, who emerged the consensus candidate of the ‘north’ a few days ago, has too little knowledge of the economy to draw any valid conclusions.

Reacting to claims by the
presidential aspirant of the
Peoples Democratic Party that the nation ’s foreign reserve had depleted drastically, the Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga, said Mr Abubakar was ignorant of the workings of the economy and therefore should not be taken seriously. He said it is always dangerous to talk on such a topic without having adequate information because this amounts to shooting from the dark.

Mr Aganga who addressed
journalists after the weekly FEC meeting said, “Let me correct this again; it is dangerous to play politics with the economy because the facts are there. You cannot argue with the facts. When you say ‘dangerously low level,’ that is untrue. That is not a statement of fact. It is always difficult to shoot from the dark, so it is always important to have
the right information. ”

The minister said in terms of the performance of the budget, the recurrent expenditure has been a complete success.

“Budget implementation means different things to different people. When you look at the expenditure side, as of date we have implemented
the recurrent part of it 100 percent. On the capital side, we have declared at least 750 billion; we expect to be N900 billion if not more by the end of the year. We are still implementing the budget. And at that level, in absolute numbers, is the highest we have had for the last five years,” he said.

Are these regular budgeted expenses the reason why we emptied the excess crude reserve and massively drew down on foreign reserve? Aganga response reminds one of Shagari response to Awolowo's alarm on the state of the economy in 2001. less than a year later, reality struck and we are still suffering the effect 30 years later.

The Federal Executive Council
(FEC) yesterday said former vice president Atiku Abubakar, who emerged the consensus candidate of the ‘north’ a few days ago, has too little knowledge of the economy to draw any valid conclusions.

hedoyad:



Do you have figures ? I take it you don't even know what the federal reserve reads right now from your response. And incase you've not been watching the news, not only the Nigerian govt is impressed with the economy but even the IMF and World bank too. A thieving illiterate comes out to say the federal reserves are dangerously low without even knowing what he means.

^ So the foreign reserve is £34 billion (approx)?! You see why people laugh at folk like you and Atiku?

Dubstic:

Most people on dis thread are just being sentimental.wot hapend to d former minister of finance wen he spoke d truth.nigerian foreign reserve has been over drawn.dere hav been warning signals by some international financial organizations to Nigeria about d state of our foreign reserve.Aganga wil only say diz nonsense to retain his position as a minister.our nnpc is owing more dan 5bilion dolars.Okonjo iweala has also sent signals to gej on d state of our foreïgn reserve.dont be deceivd by diz gej pretence.atiku nos wot he is sayin.

Dubstic:

Most people on dis thread are just being sentimental.wot hapend to d former minister of finance wen he spoke d truth.nigerian foreign reserve has been over drawn.dere hav been warning signals by some international financial organizations to Nigeria about d state of our foreign reserve.Aganga wil only say diz nonsense to retain his position as a minister.our nnpc is owing more dan 5bilion dolars.Okonjo iweala has also sent signals to gej on d state of our foreïgn reserve.dont be deceivd by diz gej pretence.atiku nos wot he is sayin.

(MENAFN) South Africaï½s Reserve Bank said that its foreign currency reserves climbed 2.3 percent last month as the National Treasury boosted purchases and a weaker dollar increased the value of holdings in euros and pounds, Reuters reported. Gross reserves rose 2.3 percent to$43.2 billion, the Pretoria-based central bank said in a statement. Net reserves increased to $38.7 billion from$38.2 billion. The Treasury increased its foreign currency deposits with the central bank by$480 million last month after adding$661 million in June, the data shows. The government is stepping up purchases to help curb the rand, which has gained 6.5 percent against the dollar in the past six months.

ladi02:

Thank you!, one of the few informed people on this site

Aganga is known to play the game of protecting his job at all cost. He has shown the public how desperate he is to remain loyal to jonathan.

His days are limited in government!