Nigeria Tackling Pandemic, Recession With Fiscal, Monetary Stimulus Packages
The federal government says it is currently tackling the challenge posed by COVID-19 pandemic and resultant recession with fiscal and monetary stimulus.
The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, made this known at the weekend in Abuja.
He also expressed optimism that the revision of the 2020 budget by the Federal Government was not intended to bring hardship to the people of Nigeria but to cushion the effect of this trying times.
According to Agba, President Muhammadu Buhari administration was looking at measures that would make economic recovery faster, in the aftermath of the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the looming global recession.
He noted that the major concern of government was how to ensure the retention of existing jobs and creation of new ones, even as the administration is looking at how to save lives; how to keep our economy off the ravages of the pandemic by reducing the impact of vulnerabilities.
“Worldwide, economies, even the ones that were strong, were going into recession. We did not have enough fiscal buffers, this time round, as we had, as a nation, in 2015. “So, the concern was how to keep our recession short-lived and shallow; how to stimulate growth in order to ensure quick recovery, not just a U-shaped recovery but a V-shaped recovery, and how to build resilience going forward after learning some lessons.
“What were the foundational things that we needed to put in place? It was necessary to have some kind of stimulus-both fiscal and monetary- and also try as much as possible to deal with the real sector and the issue of implementation so that we can stimulate growth in the economy.”
