President Buhari has raised an alarm over the decline in the country’s revenue amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who delivered President Buhari’s remark at the start of the first-year Ministerial performance review retreat holding in Abuja on Monday September 7, said his administration adopted a N2.3 trillion economic sustainability plan to mitigate the effect of the economic slowdown.
He said;
“For the government, it has been a particularly trying time. As a result of the poor fortunes of the oil sector, our revenues and foreign exchange earnings have fallen drastically. Our revenues have fallen by almost 60 percent.
“Yet we have had to sustain expenditures, especially on salaries and capital projects, in order to keep the economy going.
“But we have also had to take some difficult decisions to stop unsustainable practices that were weighing the economy down.”
President Buhari who denied claims of his administration being insensitive to the suffering of Nigerians following the increased prices of fuel and electricity, said he directed Ministers and senior administration officials to swiftly implement the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) to give succor to Nigerians.
He added;
“This government is not insensitive to the condition of our people and the very difficult economic situation and we will not inflict hardship on our people.
“In this regard, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has created credit facilities (of up to N100B) for the Healthcare (N100 Billion) and Manufacturing (N1 Trillion) sectors.
“From January 2020 to date, over N191.87B has already been disbursed for 76 real sectors projects under the N1Trillion Real Sector Scheme; while 34 Healthcare projects have been funded to the tune of N37.159B under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility.
“The facilities are meant to address some of the infrastructural gap in the healthcare and manufacturing sector as a fall out to the COVID-19 pandemic and to facilitate the attainment of the Governors 5-year strategic plan.”
