Co-ordinating Minister of Economy
and Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, on Monday said
Nigeria needs about $5 billion to
stabilise the economy.
She made the assertion at a closed door
meeting with Senate Joint Committee
on Finance and National Planning.
The Minister who was in company of
the Central Bank Governor, Godwin
Emefele; the Director of Budget, Dr.
Bright Okongwu; GMD NNPC, Dr.
Joseph Thiama Dawha, to brief Senate
committee on perimeters guiding the
operation of the 2015 budget in line
with the 2015-2017 Medium Term
Expenditure Framework and Fiscal
Strategy Paper, said Nigeria is not
broke.
“We have calculated that in order to
help us regain this stability, we need a
minimum of about $5 billion and
anything about that is good. The IMF
actually calculated $6.3 billion to be
maintained in that account.
“It helps to cushion our exchange rate,
so if we go and withdraw it abruptly
beyond that amount it causes a
problem and you know we went down
to $2 billion last year and then we built
it up to $9 billion and there was
insistence we must share, it came down
to $2 and then we had at least built it
back to $5. Right now we are at $4.1
billion,” she noted
The Minister further added: “If we had
built it to a stable cushion then
anything above that we could now use
to augment and that is the reason why
we have not seen that, we have to
balance out everything and I think
Nigerians care so much about exchange
rate. If you have abrupt changes, that
will also affect the psychology of
Nigerians, inflation and all that.”
She said every country faces a certain
amount of risks and uncertainty at
different times, so it is how one
manages it that is a problem.
“Are we prepared with a list of
measures that can help us manage any
of these outcomes, have we thought
through the various scenarios to say if
anything happens, here are the things
to recommend? If we have those
scenarios and manage those things,
then we will be able to manage the
economy,” stated.
She, however, admitted that though the
economic situation is hard, Nigeria can
still manage the situation.
“Yes, at the present time, we are
reasonably stable compared with other
countries but if those risks materialise,
we need to have action in order to keep
the economy stable,” she reiterated.
On the insinuations in some quarters
that Nigeria is broke, the Coordinating
Minister described them as false,
saying they were absolutely not correct
since the country has sufficient assets
to cushion the effect of the harsh
economic realities.
“However, that does not mean that we
cannot have some cash flow
fluctuations, we just have to manage it
because we have an economy that is
reasonably self-sufficient. We are able
to manage ourselves well and if
everybody is willing to do a few things,
we should be able to get there,” she
noted.
On the adoption of $78 pb benchmark
for 2015 budget, she simply asked, “Is
the present budget likely going to be
tenable or a workable budget?
“My belief is, no matter what is settled
on at this point in time, what is
pleasing and brings us all together is
the realisation that what we were trying
to say a few years ago has happened
and it is happening in front of us and
all of us need to come together to find
a solution.
“Whatever the decision will be, even if
we agree on another benchmark, we
still need measures to be in place
because we have no idea whether it is
going to go.
“So I think we need to prepare
ourselves in two or three scenarios and
we can share some of the scenarios that
we have been thinking about that will
guide our development of those
contingency measures.
“I think that the excess crude account
was built to be able to cushion us at
times like this, when we have some
kind of difficulties and I think it played
that role to perfection during the crises
of 2008, when oil fell to 38 to 40
dollars per barrel, even worse than
what we have now. At that time, we
still had saved up quite a lot of money
as such we were able to draw at least
for a quite a few months to carry the
economy, “she stated.
She appealed to the Senate committee
to assist the Executive Arm overcome
some of the challenges it was going
through in the course of balancing the
hard economic situation the country
finds itself.
“So we need the help of the National
Assembly, we cannot do it without you.
If we get together we can take care of
some of these issues so that it might
result in immediate upfront cost .”
Daily Independent source revealed
that the Senate joint committee at the
end of the closed door meeting
accepted the proposed $78pb
benchmark for the 2015 budget.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on
Finance, Senator Ahmed Markafi, who
declined to comment on the outcome
of the meeting in a telephone interview
simply said Senate would be briefed on
the outcome of the meeting at plenary
at an appropriate time.
Meanwhile, the House of
Representatives has declared that the
Nigerian economy is under financial
siege following the inability of the
Executive Arm of Government to
implement the National Budget as
passed by the parliament.
The lower parliament has also
indicated that the Service-Wide-Vote
being unilaterally managed by the
Executive will soon be scrapped
through the instrumentality of law.
Chairman, House Committee on Public
Accounts, Solomon Adeola, who made
the disclosure in an interview with
House of Representatives
Correspondents said further that the
parliament had resolved to summon the
Minister of Finance and the
Coordinating Minister of the Economy,
Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and
Director General of the Budget Office,
Bright Okogwu, to find solutions to the
problems bedeviling the economy.

Source: www.dailyindependentnig.com/2014/10/fg-needs-5b-stabilise-economy-okonjo-iweala/

Dust

From all this long write up, one thing I love is her statement that Nigeria is not broke. God to know that.

na so so money wen we nor dey see una dey call. see d way u just call 5billion like say na mouth if ur grand papa hear dat kind money e fit faint

Madame okonjo just talk say u and ur colleagues need pocket moni

Title on another level..

OK na, make them de chop na there turn.

You are talking about we needing just $5 billion to stabilize the economy. Imagine how much the $20 billion, which was lost under your watch, would have improved the economy.
Stop deceiving us. It's obvious the economy is facing a downturn, and it's not just because of the falling oil prices. Any economy in the world will suffer if $20 billion is removed from it, and Nigeria is definitely not an exception.

OP, what is that code for, I think NL is infected with virus.

Okonjo Wahala

Finally this nairaland app is on point.

Since naija is not broke then everything else she added to that statement is financial gibberish to me.

What's up with the title?

heheheheh...Madam the Madam so we need to borrow again abi

Let's just sell this Nation to save it @Mummy NJO

HN

You've gotten more than that time without number, yet unstable economy is the result, I just pray this will work out. But seriously, what the link showed on homepage is " AC2103B398043F98EBAC1A59AB36A754BFF3B752D563FF762E7A3F3F6DE8980D" where is the fault?

Visit www.ictnation..com today for updated info on ICT

.

Kk

Intelligent presentation...But the big question is will the money be put to use for what it is meant for

I know some government officials have started planing on the sharing formular they would adopt when sharing the billion...

*in the voice of the pot bellied polithiefcian/government official* Another season of harvesting nigeria/nigerians billion/s is here

Ok

Hmmmmmmmm. Naija sha. Na wa ooooo

Dem try wella.

Ok....let me say the truth , i don't really understand all this, NOI English pass me....

Space bookers everywhere!!

Frontpage topic was:ASKAISDHAIDA^3232#@$$%@$##@323AKDA;LDKFALSDJFLDF

How much has NNPC been alleged to have wasted in recent years ? Nigeria we hail thee

They shld use dat of SF 4 it

why is the topic written as jargon on front page?!!! I thought mods were trying to be funny.....huhh

Space ship

Hmmmmmmmmmmm!