By; PATRICK TITUS, Uyo
The Minister of State for Bugdet and National Planning, Mr Prince Agba has said that the non-oil sector of the economy has contributed 65 per cent revenue to the national economy despite the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
Agba said this during the 3-Day 4th National Treasury Workshop organised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation in Uyo, Akwa State Capital on Tuesday.
He added that with the contribution of the non-oil sector, both headline and food inflations have continued to trend down with huge success.
The Minister, who also declared that the country was no longer operating on a mono-economy, said the federal government has developed strategies to accelerate quick recovery of the economy.
He said, “Covid-19 which started as heath pandemic snowballed into economic pandemic, so, to accelerate quick recovery of the economy, we develop some strategies which include; national stimulus economic package, mobilisation of external support and funding and increase in non-oil revenue generation.
“These were aimed at retaining and creating jobs, increasing our productivity ensuring social stability and addressing long-standing economic vulnerabilities.
“Thus, the impact of Covid-19 and dwindling revenue from oil, inspite of these, we will continue to expand government policies to cushion the effect with a total estimated stimulus package by the federal government of Nigeria of 2.3 trillion naira
“We took steps to increase our non-oil revenue generation. These steps included but not limited to VAT reforms in the Finance Act 2020, customs administration enhancement, tax exemption, increased remittances and recovery of remitted revenue from government own enterprises.
“Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 5.01 % year-on-year in real time in the second quarter and 4.03%in the third quarter of 2021.
“The second quarter and third quarter growth rates were higher than the -6.10% decline recorded in quarter two of 2020 and 0.51% growth recorded in quarter one of 2021 year-on-year indicating the return of business activities.
“Headline inflation has continued to trend down for the seventh consecutive months from 18.7% in March 2021 to 15.911% in October 2021.
“Food inflation has also continued to go down in the last seven months after peaking in March 2021 at 22.91% to 18.39% in October 2021.
“The government is poised on attracting and supporting foreign and direct investment, and creating enabling environment for businesses to thrive by eliminating the barriers,” he added.
Also speaking, the Account-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris noted that the federal government in its drive to rejig the economic growth has been making genuine policies to accommodate all sectors of the economy.
The 3-day workshop was declared open by Akwa Ibom state governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel commended the federal government for gathering professionals across the country to brainstorm for away of improving the country’s economy.
The Governor was represented by his deputy, Mr Moses Ekpo.
