Okonjo-Iweala assures Nigeria’s economy will be effectively managed

The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Sunday assured the international community that the Federal Government had put necessary measures in place to ensure effective management of Nigeria’s economy.

Okonjo-Iweala said this when she briefed newsmen on Nigerian Delegation’s participation at the Annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF, in Washington DC.

She said there had been a contingency plan to ensure that the economy did not suffer in spite of the drop in global oil price.

“First, we have to realize, the dimensions of the situation and we are beginning to do that. With the team here, the D-G Budget, the Central Bank, we are looking at various scenarios.

“We are running our models in terms of the oil price shock and so on, even quality shocks. And when you look at contingency scenarios, there are three ways you can manage them,’’ she said.

According to her, “you can either go outside to get resources to manage the system, but we are not planning to do that. We are not going outside to get resources at this moment. That is the pride that we have had.”

She said that government had no plans for such in the meantime. She also said that from the revenue side some positive result had emerged with additional income from to the Federal Inland Revenue Services.

“Because we were ahead of the curve in trying to bring on some extra help to FIRS, we gave a target of 500 million dollars which is about N75 billion to the FIRS backed by the McKinsey.

“That is helping to strengthen their capacity to improve audits and plug leakages. I am happy to say that of the N75 billion targets, they have already hit N44 billion of additional revenues in July.

Via dailypost.ng