By Dipo Olowookere
The Presidency has assured Nigerians that they would soon experience real growth across all sectors of the country’s economy.
While reacting to the latest figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which said the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 1.4 percent in the third quarter of this year, the Presidency said last quarter’s growth has showed that the various reforms of this administration were in the right direction.
In a statement issued on Monday by Mr Laolu Akande, spokesman to the Vice President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, the Presidency said it would “continue to work diligently on a daily basis to ensure inclusive growth, to which we have always been committed through the active pursuit of a raft of policy initiatives, past and present.”
According to the statement, “Such initiatives include but not limited to the Social Investment Programmes, Anchor Borrowers Scheme, longstanding budget support facilities to states, plus other bailout packages, ensuring the comprehensive payment of workers’ salary & pension backlogs among others.
“Equally, the Federal Government will be ramping up the implementation pace of the Economic Recovery & Growth Plan (ERGP).
Quoting the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu, the statement said, “The latest NBS GDP figures show that the Nigerian economy grew by 1.4% year-on-year in real terms in the third quarter of 2017 (Q3 2017). This is a steady continuation of the positive growth of 0.55% (now revised to 0.72%) experienced in Q2 2017 and reinforces the exit from the 2016 recession.
“The positive growth in Q3 is consistent with the improvements in other indicators. Foreign exchange reserves have risen to nearly $34 billion while stock market and purchasing managers indices have also been positive.
“The naira exchange rate has stabilised while inflation has declined to 15.91% from 18.7 in January 2017. While inflation is not declining as fast as desirable, it is approaching the estimated target of 15.74% for the year in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
“Agricultural growth was 3.06% in the third quarter of 2017, maintaining the positive growth of the sector even when there was a slow-down in the rest of the economy.
“The industrial sector grew at 8.83% mostly due to mining and quarrying. The oil sector grew very strongly as forecast in the ERGP and partly as a result of the policy actions in the plan to restore growth in the sector.
“The service sector is yet to recover but should soon begin to be positively affected by the improvements in the real economy and the effects of the dedicated and focused capital spending of over N1.2 trillion on infrastructure by the Federal Government.
“It is expected that the economy will continue to grow given these developments and the reform, and improvements in the business environment shown by the upward movement of 24 places in the recently released World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Rankings which was better than the target of 20 places specified in the ERGP.”
Concluding, Dr Dipeolu said, “The overall picture that emerges is that the economy is on the path of recovery.
“As inflation trends downwards, and with steady implementation of the ERGP, real growth should soon be realised across all sectors in a mutually reinforcing manner.”
Modupe Gbadeyanka