Highlights of Honourable Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun’s Post-Spring Meetings Interview in Washington DC USA

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1. At the end of the World Bank Spring Meetings two weeks ago, I spoke to the press about Nigeria’s outing and the outlook for the economy.

2. Our delegation- Myself, Ministers of Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Director General of Debt Management Office and others had a successful outing at the meetings.

3. We held very productive meetings with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank (AfDB) Group and International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Nigeria’s Power Sector Recovery Plan.

4. Power is a critical success factor for Nigeria’s economy. If there is one thing that will drive growth, it is steady power supply.

5. This is why we have a comprehensive Power Sector Recovery & Implementation Plan; bringing together all key actors and stakeholders.

6. On Taxes, our focus is widening the net, through data collection. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has now registered more than 800,000 additional companies.

7. We are glad about the ongoing beneficial ownership reforms. Last year, President Muhammadu Buhari signed an important agreement with the United Kingdom (UK) along those lines.

8. The UK Government is now going to give us a list of every Nigerian who owns property in the UK, and we can match them with our own Tax Database.

9. On Social Investment, we have ongoing programmes in Cash Transfer, School Feeding, Rebuilding the Northeast, and in Affordable Housing.

10. We are seeing increasing interest in Nigeria from investors. They are looking at power, aviation, rail and manufacturing. We are excited about this.

11. On Whistleblowing, what we have now is a Federal Executive Council (FEC)-approved Policy. We have forwarded the draft whistleblower law to the National Assembly, and it is awaiting passage.

12. While we wait for the National Assembly to pass the Whistleblower law, our intention is that the FEC-approved Policy will serve as a Stop-gap.

13. On Recovered Loot, all the recovered stolen money goes into a Central Recovery Account under the supervision of the Accountant-General.

14. On Capital Projects, we have now spent about 1.2trillion Naira of the 2016 budget on capital projects. We hope to do more in the 2017 Budget.

15. I liken our Infrastructure and Social Investment spending to laying a foundation. At this stage things seem quiet, and then suddenly you start seeing impact.

16. We are now moving into a phase where we will see the tangible impact of our work so far, in terms of job creation, prosperity and growth.

You are doing a great job Kemi