By Uzair Adam Imam
The Federal Government has said that the adverse effects of the war in Ukraine and the ongoing security challenge in Nigeria have contributed to the aggravation of the fragile economic situation in the country.
At the start of the war, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned that the world economy would pay a “hefty price” for the war in Ukraine, encompassing weaker growth, stronger inflation and potentially long-lasting damage to supply chains.
In Nigeria, inflation is already hitting living standards and reducing consumer spending as business owners become less optimistic about production.
The Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikande Agba, disclosed this Tuesday at the 63rd National Conference of Nigerian Economic Society.
The 3-day conference, which started Tuesday at the Maryam Abacha American University of Nigeria, Kano, was themed “Fiscal Sustainability and Policy Response for Economic Recovery in Nigeria”.
The Minister, represented by the Director Macro Economic, Mr Felix Okonkwo, said fiscal discipline is what Nigeria needs to build a stable and inclusive economy.
Agba stated that the Federal Government is focused on addressing the revenue issues, which it considers essential to the economic and financial health of the country.
He added that insufficient revenue was why Nigeria could not contain its fiscal deficit after the recession, meaning that the country’s capacity to continue to support and raise capital expenditure has not been improved.
He said, “The adverse effect of the War in Ukraine, insecurity, global food crisis, oil theft in the Niger Delta, rising energy prices, massive depreciation of the naira exchange rate, high fuel subsidy and increasing inflation as well as insufficient fiscal buffer aggravated the fragile economic situation in the country.”
The chairman of the occasion, Shamsuddeen Usman, said the conference aimed at providing possible ways to restore the country’s economic stability through enhancing fiscal policies.
The President of the Nigerian Economic Society, Prof. Umma Jalingo, who organized the event, said the association was founded three years before Nigeria’s independence and was aimed at enhancing the country’s economy.
