By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr Udoma Udo Udoma, has revealed efforts being made by the Federal Government in cutting costs so as to get the economy back on its feet again.
He made this known on Tuesday at a Town Hall meeting held in Abuja to update Nigerians on achievements of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s in the last two years in office.
Mr Udoma said the country’s economic situation was changing for the better as the macroeconomic environment was being stabilized and inflation rate trending downwards in the last two months.
According to him, government interventions, particularly in fixing the broken infrastructure, was making impact and there were positive signs that the economy was working its way out of recession this year unto a path of sustained inclusive growth and development.
He pointed out that government was making progress in changing the economy and also changing the people’s attitudes.
According to the Minister, the economy will receive further boost as government rolls out the full implementation of the Economic Recovery and growth Plan (ERGP).
Apart from the policies and plans guiding the country’s economic trajectory, the Minister indicated that several infrastructural projects are on-going across the country and some are nearing completion; government is drastically cutting costs and improving efficiency of service delivery; and the country is poised to attain food sufficiency in major agricultural products, particularly rice, by next year.
A lot of work, he added, is being done through the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to improve the business environment with very encouraging responses from investors in the last few months.
Mr Udoma said President Muhammadu Buhari’s aim is to create a self-reliant country and people. “As the President says, “We will change our habits and we will change Nigeria to a nation in which we grow what we eat and consume what we make.”
He explained that the Federal Government has continued to hold frequent and extensive consultations with the private sector, NGO’s and various interest groups to build consensus on economic policies and programmes.
“We did this when developing the NERGP. We have also continued with the tradition of co-hosting the annual Nigerian Economic Summit. The 2016 Economic Summit was focused on ways of promoting ‘Made in Nigeria’ products,” he said.
