₦airaland Forum

bruno419:
Abuja – The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi
Okonjo–Iweala, has assured Nigerians that the
economy is growing positively in spite of the
reduction of oil price in the international market.
Okonjo-Iweala, who stated this on Tuesday at
the 2014 Ministerial Platform in Abuja, said the
nation was not broke as being speculated in the
media.
She said “if you look back two years ago, that
title `is Nigeria broke‘ was written in a
newspaper article, it is like people are trying to
force Nigeria into brokerage.
“I think since two years, we have managed to

Nonsense talk $1= #167
keep things going, let me explain these; Nigeria
is a country that depends on a stream of
income.
“That income is being able to collect taxes from
companies, individuals and our income is also
based on selling a product and that product you
take to market and you take whatever price a
buyer is willing to pay.’’
According to her, government is doing
everything within its power to ensure economic
stability in the country.
She said that presently, government had been
budgeting below the existing oil price to help
build buffers in case of uncertainty.
“We are operating an economy that depends on
a product that fluctuates with oil price and we
don’t have the right to control the price.
“Just like you have in your own household, when
the quantity diminishes or the price drops, you
remember in 2007 to 2008, the price of oil
dropped from 140 dollars to 38 dollars.
“At that time, nobody asked if the country was
broke because we had saved up 22 billion dollars
in the Excess Crude Account and we were able
to continue spending and to stablise the
economy.’’
The minister said that presently Nigeria was
faced with fluctuations in quantity and price of
oil, adding that it had affected the amount paid
into government coffers.
“Does that mean that the country is broke? We
still have resources that we depend on; we still
have the ability to tax.
“Sometimes, things need to be a little tighter,
easier and we just have to weather it and
manage ourselves but that does not amount to
the country being broke.’’
The finance minister said if government was not
able to pay salaries to people and continue to
manage, “then we can say that the country is
broke but we have not gotten there yet.’’
She urged Nigerians to bear with the nature of
the economy, adding that it was the reason
every effort was challenged to ensure the
economy was diversified.
Commenting on the management of the fiscal
deficit, she said that the Ministry of Finance
would continue to ensure that it was kept as
narrow as possible.
She said that in 2013, the debt to Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) ration was 1.4 per cent
and 1.03 per cent in 2014 and projected to be
one per cent in 2015 budget. .
She added that borrowing had been on the
decline and external debt stood at N1.46 trillion
or 14 per cent of the total debt.
The ministry had adopted prudence to debt
management and Nigeria’s debt to GDP remained
one of the lowest in the world. (NAN)

source: www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/nigeria-is-not-broke-okonjo-iweala/

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