Poverty is coming heavy in Nigeria, the poor will continue to suffer, the rich have enough to enjoy:
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on
Thursday said the country would this month begin to feel the impact of
the falling global oil prices, which started in June. Consequently, she
said the country needed to brace for tougher times ahead by reviewing
its expenditures and building economic buffers through budgets that
would be based on modest oil prices.
She said sound macroeconomic management is crucial to
Nigeria at this time, while also emphasising the need to plug all
revenue leakages.
Speaking in Lagos at the Africa Financial Summit, Okonjo-Iweala said:
“We have not seen the impact of the falling oil prices in Nigeria; it will start this month. We have to drive the non-oil revenue base to be able to weather the storm that is coming.”
She, however, said Nigeria was not alone in the coming
economic storm, pointing out that a large number of African countries
that relied on commodity export as the mainstay of their economies would
also be affected by the global fall in the prices of such commodities.
The minister said the global fall in the prices of export
commodities such as gold, iron ore and agricultural produce such as
cocoa, cotton and coffee was bound to affect most African economies,
which relied on commodity export as the major source of revenue.
Quoting from the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development, Okonjo-Iweala said the ratio of export commodity to total
merchandise was very high in a large number of African countries.
She said there is urgent need for Nigeria and other African
countries to explore other means of shoring up their revenues in the
face of the falling prices of export commodities.
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