Nigeria spends $2.4 billion to drag country out of recession
01 October 2016 - 14:29
byFelix Onuah and Ulf Laessing
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ABUJA — Nigeria has spent $2.4bn on capital expenditure in 2016 to help drag Africa’s biggest economy out of recession, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday.
"I believe that this recession will not last," Buhari said in a televised speech marking the country’s independence day.
"Several hundreds of thousands of (unemployed) workers will be re-engaged in the next few months as our public works programme gains momentum." Buhari also said the government has been negotiating to end militant attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta, the country’s oil hub, but would not be intimidated by armed groups.
He said oil production had temporarily dropped to less than one million barrels a day, down from 2.2 million bpd, due to militant attacks, but he did not say how much current output was.
Buhari also reiterated the government wanted to repair the country’s four refineries to end costly fuel imports.
He said the naira exchange rate to the dollar would stabilise, after dropping to record lows due to a "critical" shortage of hard currency amid low oil prices. He did not elaborate.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Nigeria spends $2.4 billion to drag country out of recession
ABUJA — Nigeria has spent $2.4bn on capital expenditure in 2016 to help drag Africa’s biggest economy out of recession, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday.
"I believe that this recession will not last," Buhari said in a televised speech marking the country’s independence day.
"Several hundreds of thousands of (unemployed) workers will be re-engaged in the next few months as our public works programme gains momentum." Buhari also said the government has been negotiating to end militant attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta, the country’s oil hub, but would not be intimidated by armed groups.
He said oil production had temporarily dropped to less than one million barrels a day, down from 2.2 million bpd, due to militant attacks, but he did not say how much current output was.
Buhari also reiterated the government wanted to repair the country’s four refineries to end costly fuel imports.
He said the naira exchange rate to the dollar would stabilise, after dropping to record lows due to a "critical" shortage of hard currency amid low oil prices. He did not elaborate.
Reuters
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