The Buhari administration said Wednesday it will support a plan to inject more than N2 trillion into the Nigerian economy to fight the unprecedented economic crash caused by the pandemic.
The Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) led by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo recommended a N2.3 trillion stimulus plan to support the Nigerian economy in the face of the disruptions and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The total package that we presented today is in the sum of N2.3 trillion, N500 billion of this is a stimulus package that is already provided for in the amended in the 2020 Appropriations Act, said the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
She disclosed that the FEC approved the report of the economic sustainability plan.
“These are funds that we have sourced from special accounts. We also have N1.2 trillion of this funds to be sourced as structured low-cost loans which are interventionary from the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as other development partners and institutions”.
She said the committee made up of a number of Cabinet Ministers and held extensive consultations with National Assembly and the Economic Advisory Council (EAC), and State Governors.
“We have N344 billion that will be sourced from bilateral and external sources and also additional funds that we can source locally.
“There is a strategy that has been adopted and this whole plan is to enable us to respond to the triple problem of the low exchange rate, youth unemployment as well as negative growth which is facing us now.
“The plan has to also support small businesses that have suffered a severe impact of COVID-19 as a result of lockdowns. Specially, the hotel industry, private schools, restaurants as well as the transport sector have been very well impacted by this.
“We have also seen a significant impact on the poor and the vulnerable and even people that were okay as small traders have been hard hit by standstill that we witnessed as a result of lockdown.
“Council was able to take our reports and the interventions in the plan is that we prevent businesses from collapsing and also to infuse liquidity around the Nigerian economy, to create jobs using labour-intensive methods such as agriculture, facility management, housing, construction, direct labour interventions that will create a lot of jobs very quickly.
“We had also proposed in the plan to undertake growth-enhancing jobs, creating infrastructure investments in roads, bridges, solar power, communications technology and several others.
“We have promoted in the planned manufacturing and local production at all levels, we are advocating for the use of made in Nigeria in all of these public works that we will be doing as a way of creating jobs opportunities to enhance jobs sufficiency. The Goals of the NESP is to create jobs, put money into the economy, hopefully, stop it slipping into recession, support small businesses and prioritize local content (Made-in-Nigeria). The NESP is a 12-month ‘Transit’ Plan between the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and the ERGP-successor-plan currently being worked upon”.
