Nigeria’s foreign reserves crashed from $26.51 billion in the second quarter of 2016 to $24.74 billion in September, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, reveals.
Udoma said this in Abuja on the sideline of the 57th yearly conference of Nigeria Economic Society (NES) with the theme: “The developmental state and diversification of the Nigerian economy.’’
The Minister said Nigeria had revenue and foreign currency problems, adding that diversification was the only solution. He said due to the four strategic pipeline terminals that were blown up, Nigeria had been unable to achieve its 2016 budget production target of 2.2 million barrels daily. Udoma said in August, the country was barely able to produce 1.1 million barrels.
“Last week, production level rose to 1.7 million barrels, which is still a far cry from the country’s target of 2.2 million barrels. We are taking a number of immediate measures to raise revenues to strategically spend our way out of recession. “We are taking measures to address the disruption in the Niger Delta to restore production,” he said.
Part of the measures, according to him, was fast-tracking efforts to raise foreign currency loans that have been projected in the 2016 budget from the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), World Bank, and Chinese Exim Bank as well as Euro Bond issue.
