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| Last Updated: Jan 19th, 2012 - 11:25:19 |
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President Yar’Adua takes steps to cushion the effects of global economic meltdown
Feb 5, 2009, 10:44
| | Consequent on the decisions reached by the Presidential Steering Commit-tee on the Global Economic Meltdown, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has directed relevant government agencies to take immediate steps to work out a palliative package to cushion the impact of the global economic crunch on Nigerians.
The Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, who made the disclosure while briefing the press on Wednesday, February 4 at the state house in Abuja, stated that the directive came after the President was properly briefed by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, on the outcome of the committee’s meeting of Tuesday, February 3 chaired by the Finance Minister, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, at which a number of palliative measures were proposed on the short, medium and long terms to mitigate the effects of the global economic crisis on the country.
He stated that the president has directed the CBN and Finance Ministry to liaise with other agencies and do more work on some short-term palliative measures being proposed so that they could be implemented soon. While noting that salary increase was not in the card given the current falling crude oil price in the international market, he said what is being worked out is a package of incentives that will ginger production, increase the purchasing power of the ordinary man on the street and help generate employment opportunities.
Mr. Adeniyi stated that aside infrastructural development, in the medium- and long-term strategies, the government is looking in the direction of agriculture through commercial farming clusters and value chain not only for food security but for employment generation adding that in the oil sector, the local content guidelines are being reviewed as a component of the reforms to give more leverage to the people.
He said that Dr. Muhtar and Prof. Soludo would likely get back to the president before this weekend and that measures being worked out would be announced as soon as their details were sorted out.
Speaking on the 2009 budget expected to be approved by the National Assembly this week, the president’s spokesman said the president had already received the report of the committee he set up to work out the modalities for its implementation, noting that with the measures being put in place, a lot would be achieved this year.
He disclosed that in an effort to complete many of the projects in the power sector the Minister, Dr. Lanre Babalola, is likely to be given a special dispensation by the president with regards to power of spending and that the details are currently being worked out by the Director General of Bureau of Public Procurement, Mr. Emeka Ezeh.
He declared that while the economic outlook does not look promising given the price of oil, the president remains optimistic that Nigeria can seize the moment to redirect her economy and begin on the road to prosperity adding that the critics of the policy that provides for the return of huge sums of money meant for the execution of the 2008 budget to the treasury could now see the wisdom of spending only when sure of achieving set targets, compared with the past when the said unspent allocations were not returned, yet targets were hardly met.
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