Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba says the Federal Government was preoccupied with how to retain existing jobs and creation of new ones and so explained that revision of the 2020 budget was not intended to introduce austerity measures.
He explained that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was looking at measures that would make economic recovery faster in the aftermath of the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the looming global recession.
According to him, “worldwide, economies, even the ones that we’re strong, we’re going into recession. We did not have enough fiscal buffers, this time around, as we had, as a nation, in 2015.
“So, the concern was how to keep our recession short-lived and shallow; how to stimulate growth in order to ensure quick recovery, not just a U-shaped recovery but a V-shaped recovery, and how to build resilience going forward after learning some lessons.”
The minister who spoke as one of the discussants of the “Impact of COVID-19 on the Economy particularly on the 2020 and 2021 Budgets” during a live discussion programme explained that it was necessary to have fiscal and monetary stimulus packages that will deal with the real sector and the issue of implementation so that we can stimulate growth in the economy.
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“The revision of the budget was not to come up with austerity measures. It was to move resources to areas that would give us more impact such as health, agriculture, works and maintenance of our highways, job creation for our youths and women, artisanal miners, support for MSMEs, providing bailouts to critical sectors of the economy, among others.”
“We have actually put in a lot more funds into the budget than in the original budget; hence we are talking about stimulus.”
“It is not about budget reduction. The health sector, for instance, got $186 billion more than in the original budget. FERMA got more funding for rural roads rehabilitation along the agro-corridors to ensure that post-harvest losses are reduced and agricultural produce actually get to the market.”
He said the government’s priority also included giving support to the social, health and education sectors and building capacity through training for youths and women.
Agba pointed out that the restructuring and renaming of the Ministry of Communications in July, last year, to function as Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy reflected the new priority of the government.
He said that, in addition to the Crisis Management Committee, under the chair of the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Presidential Task Force (PTF) under the chair of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), there was the Economic Sustainability Committee headed by the Vice President with focus on diverse economic sustainability programmes.
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