Nigerian economy beats IMF's projection, grows by 2.27 percent
Mon Feb 24, 2020 09:08:am Finance
1.9K By Afam Jude Offor
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria has been reported to have increased by 2.27% in 2019 according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This is contrary to the initial projection of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the country's economy would grow by only 2.1% within the same year, The Cable reports. However, in a an earlier report,The federal government had admitted that Nigeria’s economy had “gone down.” This was stated by the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige on Tuesday, February 18 when he hosted the United States of America Ambassador, Mary Beth Leonard. Ngige also spoke on the economic downturn, saying Nigeria made a mistake depending on a single revenue source for decades. His words: “Our economy has gone down; we know we made the mistake of relying on products, petroleum. When petroleum prices loop down, we had some insurgency in the area of production in Niger delta, our earning concomitantly, had to go down.” Speaking on the federal government's diversification policy, Leonard said that there was a need for the skill set of Nigerians to be effectively harnessed and internationalised. She called on the Nigerian government to capture the entrepreneurial spirit in the informal sector by bringing it into the formal sector service to enhance employment generation in the country. The Buhari administration had since been promoting the diversification of the economy to curb the massive unemployment in the country. The government said it was more serious about achieving inclusive economic growth through diversification and focus has shifted away from oil and towards the industries. A Nigerian professor of political economy and management expert, Pat Utomi, however, said the majority of Nigerians had lost hope in the country and had already given up.
This is contrary to the initial projection of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the country's economy would grow by only 2.1% within the same year, The Cable reports. However, in a an earlier report,The federal government had admitted that Nigeria’s economy had “gone down.” This was stated by the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige on Tuesday, February 18 when he hosted the United States of America Ambassador, Mary Beth Leonard. Ngige also spoke on the economic downturn, saying Nigeria made a mistake depending on a single revenue source for decades. His words: “Our economy has gone down; we know we made the mistake of relying on products, petroleum. When petroleum prices loop down, we had some insurgency in the area of production in Niger delta, our earning concomitantly, had to go down.” Speaking on the federal government's diversification policy, Leonard said that there was a need for the skill set of Nigerians to be effectively harnessed and internationalised. She called on the Nigerian government to capture the entrepreneurial spirit in the informal sector by bringing it into the formal sector service to enhance employment generation in the country. The Buhari administration had since been promoting the diversification of the economy to curb the massive unemployment in the country. The government said it was more serious about achieving inclusive economic growth through diversification and focus has shifted away from oil and towards the industries. A Nigerian professor of political economy and management expert, Pat Utomi, however, said the majority of Nigerians had lost hope in the country and had already given up.
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