The
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said the country is
not broke despite the cash crunch currently being experienced.
She said that with the financial assets
the President Goodluck Jonathan administration had been able to build
over the years, the nation’s cash flow would improve over time.
In an interview with CNN’s
Richard Quest, Okonjo-Iweala said, “Under this administration, we began
the work of truly diversifying the economy and the proof of that is that
much of the growth in this past few years that has come to the country
has come not from the oil sector but actually from non-oil sectors like
agriculture, telecommunications, manufacturing and the creative
industries.
“The fact that oil prices fell by 50 per
cent makes it very difficult in terms of cash flow, but Nigeria is asset
rich and that is why when people say the country is broke, I say no. In
economic terms, with the kind of assets we have, we should be able to
realise some of them to improve our cash flow but it is true that this
will be a very difficult year because of the cash crunch.
“However, we need to see this drop in oil
prices as an opportunity. I gave a talk on Nigeria beyond oil. I really
think with the growth of the country based on non-oil sectors, we ought
to see the fall in oil prices as an opportunity to further the
diversification that has started under this administration.”
Comments
Post a Comment
Hello