As the novel coronavirus continues to pose a threat to the Nigerian economy, the federal government has disclosed its readiness to inject N2trillion naira stimulus injection into the economy.
The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, disclosed this at a webinar on “Citizens Dialogue Session on Government Fiscal Policy Decisions to the Fall in Oil Proces and the COVID-19 Pandemic” organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and supported by Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
Agba, in response to a question on what the Economic Sustainability Committee under the Chair of Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, was doing to deal with the pandemic and the fall in crude oil prices, said the committee had outlined five broad policy objectives with which to deal with the problems.
After highlighting the objectives, he said, “All in all, when everything is put together, both government funding and the funds we are expected to get from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Banks of Industry and other multilateral agencies and grants that we are receiving, we expect to get a stimulus of about 2 trillion going into the economy.”
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“We are also looking at how to support the Aviation sector. Like you know, a lot of planes are parked and this is causing almost N21 billion (loss) on a monthly basis. We are looking at how to provide some form of bailout support to ensure that the industry doesn’t die.
“Of the $2.5 billion facilities from the World Bank, about $1 billion of it will be going to the states as loans. These are concessionary loans. MrPresident has already approved N850 billion loan from the domestic capital market” he was quoted as saying
He also said the president has approved that $150 million be taken from the Sovereign Wealth Account, in support of the Federal Account Allocation Committee.
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