We Are Re-Starting Nigeria’s Economy – Finance Minister, Adeosun Says

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has assured Nigerians that Muhammadu Buhari’s government is restarting the country’s economy in a way that everybody would be better off than before.
“Companies that had laid off staff and those that had abandoned projects are going back to sites and the economy will restart. Our priority is engaging Nigerians and resuming our capital projects.”
The minister, in a paper she present at the just concluded National Economic Council (NEC) retreat in Abuja, said that as a sign of the federal government’s commitment to stimulate the economy, a total of N350 billion would be pumped into the system in form of capital spending within the next one quarter.
She said that the federal government is planning to use the 2016 budget to fast-track economic diversification, adding that efforts have been put in place to ensure that the spending on the capital projects trickles down to all Nigerians.
“We are going to spend money and this will be done in a disciplined manner and in right places.
She assured that the government had designed a platform and system to ensure transparency, saying that spending will be controlled.
“We are pumping N350bn into the economy in the next one quarter to help the economy.”
Adeosun asked state governments to take their destinies in their own hands by proactively driving revenue generation, adding that now is the time to put in place a robust revenue drive by the states.
“There is need to have a business and commercial approach to revenue generation.
“There is need for us to look at data management because nobody can succeed in revenue generation without the data.
Speaking on the plans for the Customs service, the minister said the Federal Government has agreed to review the remunerations of the Customs Service.
“We look at the Customs and found out that it has one of the lowest salaries at least from their peer group. That is a problem. Here you have a custom officer being paid N50, 000 monthly and you task him to collect duty of nearly N2 million. So we are working on better remuneration for the Customs.
“The other issue is the equipment being used by the agency. Their ability to scan containers is very important. Classifications of containers are faulty now because of the kind of equipment they use.  Ability to scan a container and know what is in it is limited.” [myad]