The Federal Government is hopeful of an economic rebound by the fourth quarter of 2016, an optimism anchored on recent improvements in the non-oil sector.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, raised the optimism on Wednesday in Abuja but blamed the deepening recession on slowing developments in the oil sector.
“With regards to the fourth quarter, we believe that the fourth quarter will be better than the third quarter even for the oil sector because oil production has started moving up as a result of a lot of initiatives that this government has been taking,” Udoma stated, briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Udoma briefed alongside the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Muhammed; and the Minister of Labour Employment, Chris Ngige.
“We are looking forward to a fourth quarter that is much better than the third quarter. We are encouraged by that.”
The FEC which sits once every week reviewed the figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, raising concerns that the economy did worse in the third quarter than the previous one which officially announced recession, Udoma said.
Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter, 2016 contracted 2.24 percent and equally grew negatively for three straight quarters in the year, according to figures from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Monday.
Analysts say the economy will need at least about 4 percent growth to reverse to positive territory.
“We looked at the recent numbers which were released on Monday by the NBS. As you know, from these numbers, the economy is still in recession.
“The performance in the third quarter is slightly worse than the second quarter and this was attributable to the performance of the oil sector which performed worse in the third quarter than the second quarter and that was for reasons you all know,” Udoma stated.
“However, the good news is that the non-oil sector is improving in the direction that is most encouraging to the government. Agriculture continues to growth at 12.5 percent, solid minerals continue to grow at seven percent. We are encouraged by the direction that the non-oil sector is moving.
Meanwhile, FEC equally approved the purchase of vehicles worth N464million for the Federal Road Safety Corps.
Chris Ngige, minister of Labour and productivity, briefing on the outcomes of the meeting said the vehicles include 50 Pick-up vans to be purchased from Innoson Motors, Nnewi and 27 Peugeot 301 cars to be procured from Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, Kaduna.
The Labour minister said the decisions to patronize indigenous companies was in line with the government’s local content policy.
Ngige said, “The council approved the purchase of some vehicles to strengthen the capacity of the FRSC. It approved that 40 Pick-up vehicles be added to the commission’s fleet. Another 27 Peugeot 301 cars were also approved for the commission.
“The pickups vans are to be sourced from Innoson Motors while the cars will be sourced from Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, Kaduna.
“This is in line with our local content and procurement act. The total purchase is N464m. Innoson vehicles will cost N299million while the Peugeot cars N164million.”
