The President said apart from saving $500m in the Sovereign Wealth Fund and investing another $500m in the SWF, the country’s external reserve presently stands at $35bn, the highest in the past four years.

According to him, the Federal Government has saved about N18bn within one year after the establishment of an Efficiency Unit under the Federal Ministry of Finance in early 2016 to reduce wastage, plug leakages and foster greater fiscal transparency

Buhari, who was represented by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), stated this on Saturday in Jos, during the graduation of 66 participants in the 2017 Senior Executive Course 39 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru.

He said, “For the first time in five years, we saved $500m, and invested another $500m in the Sovereign Wealth Fund. Today, our external reserves stand at $35bn, the highest in the past four years. Today, we can see light at the end of the tunnel; darkness is giving way to light.”

He added that the Presidency stopped the siphoning of funds through ghost workers by insisting that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies must be on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System in all tiers of government and mandated the use of Bank Verification Numbers.

He said over 461 federal MDAs had been captured on the system thus far, with the objective of being able to enroll all of them

lier,nah u neva go settle ASUU

God bless you sai maigaskiya till 2023, your enemies will die

what is he saving for?
I dont think ASUU need up to 10% of that amount to return to classrooms

NigerDeltan:
what is he saving for?

I dont think ASUU need up to 10% of that amount to return to classrooms

The foreign reserve is needed so that our currency does not become like Zimbabwe dollar....and also for important purchases.

Yet we are borrowing up and down. No sense in this.

theoldpretender:


The foreign reserve is needed so that our currency does not become like Zimbabwe dollar....and also for important purchases.

Abeg please educate us on how saving money stabilizes the Naira. I would really love to learn.

ceejayMAX:
lier,nah u neva go settle ASUU

if them pay ASUU with external reserve e go cause inflation.

NothingDoMe:
Abeg please educate us on how saving money stabilizes the Naira. I would really love to learn.

Briefly, it's from the reserve that forex is released to improve the value of the naira and to keep it from going too high.

This article does a much better job explaining why...

horlabiyi:
Yet we are borrowing up and down. No sense in this.

Largely because of the following facts

1.We need oil at $140 per barrel to run a good enough budget without borrowing.

2.Oil has been selling between $30 to $75 since Bubu took over.

3.Hence the borrowing. We are not earning enough from oil at the moment.

4.At the same time, we need a forex reserve to keep the naira from overheating (see here)

Yet the government is still borrowing thereby mortgaging Nigeria into chronic indebtedness even saying it have to sell some national assets to fund 2019 budget.

Racoon:
Yet the government is still borrowing thereby mortgaging Nigeria into chronic indebtedness even saying it have to sell some national assets to fund 2019 budget.

Because we are not earning enough from oil

According to Fitch, we need oil to be at $140 per barrel before we can run a budget free of borrowing.

Oil prices since Bubu took over have never reached $90.

Of course we HAVE to borrow (For that matter, that's partly why GEJ borrowed too, even with high oil prices)

please do research and have some sense please

ceejayMAX:
lier,nah u neva go settle ASUU

Over 5 million jobs lost in the same year.