According to Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, the economy is doing better under Muhammadu Buhari than it was under previous administrations.
The minister made the claim following a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Buhari on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. She explained that the Excess Crude Account (ECA) had been depleted because it had not been funded in a long time, while also noting that funds were withdrawn from the account to purchase arms for the anti-insurgency war.
Asked about the current status of the economy, she said, “First of all, let me address a question on the issue of the economy, as to whether the administration has done well.” The administration has done very well.
“I need to remind us all here that in 2015, the administration came on and faced a crisis in the oil and gas sector; we had the first slump in crude oil prices and a very significant slump in crude oil production.
“There was a time when the volumes went as low as one million barrels per day. We were able to take measures to reflate the economy and exit the recession within three quarters. By the fourth quarter, we were out of recession.
“Secondly, we had a second recession due to COVID-19. That was even a shorter recession, and we have now seen up to five quarters of positive growth. So, the economy has been growing, despite very, very difficult circumstances.
“The other thing I need to remind us is that this administration has been able to realize the lowest oil and gas revenue, compared to all previous administrations, but it has also been able to do much more in terms of deployment of infrastructure. So, the administration has done well. “
In explaining the depletion of ECA, the minister recalled that the sum of $1 billion was withdrawn from it for the procurement of arms, in consultation with state governors.
“On the issue of the Excess Crude Account, in the past four years, because of volatility in the oil market, we have not had accrual to the account.
“So, what we have had, has been gradually used up for different purposes and it is always used in consultation with the National Economic Council, NEC, that is the governors because this is a federation account.
“The last approval that was given by the council was the withdrawal of $ 1 billion to enhance security. We have been utilizing that. The last tranch of that has been finally released because deployment to security agencies is based on the contracts executed and it is been used strictly for that security purpose. So, the utilization of the account is with the full knowledge of the governors.”
On the council’s approval of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, the Minister said: “The assumptions that we made for the next medium-term framework from 2023 to 2025 is that crude oil price will be at $70 BPD for 2023, $66 and for 2024 and $62 BPD for 2025.
“Crude oil production is projected to be 1.69million BPD for 2023 and 1.813million bpd for both 2024 as well as 2025. We have also projected that the nominal GDP, the size of Nigeria’s economy will rise to N225.5trillion, with 95% of this contribution by the non-oil sector, while the oil sector will be contributing only 5%. And some steady increase from 2024, to 2025 to reach up to N280.70trillion in 2025.
“This means that Nigeria continues to retain its position as the largest economy in Africa.
