Finance Minister says economy is in recession

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun has said that Nigeria is in recession but measures are being taken to kick-start economic growth.

Adeosun said this in Abuja on Thursday while briefing the Senate on measures taken by the administration to ease the hardship Nigerians are going through.

She stressed that government was committed to addressing the issues currently facing Nigerians while noting the release of N248 billion from the 2016 budget as part of efforts to get the economy going.

"Technically, in economic terms, we have had two periods of negative growth; we are in a recession but I don’t think we should dwell on that.

"The most important thing is that we are going to get out of it.

"Our social intervention projects have been funded to provide relief to the poorest. Every local government will be touched by that programme and we will continue to get out of it.

"While Nigeria lives in one of the toughest times, we are confident that the strategies we are deploying will get us out of the problems we inherited.

"Those strategies are about being disciplined about government spending to reduce wastage and leakages to ensure that we invest in infrastructure that is needed to create jobs and growth in this economy.

"On capital releases done so far, N248 billion has been released so far, with another N16 billion to be released imminently.

"Ministry of works has received N74 billion in the last two months, compared to N19 billion for the whole of last year.

Agriculture, which is the strategic focus of this government has received N22 billion compared to just N4 billion the whole of last year.

Transport has received N22 billion compared to just N6 billion for the whole of last year.

"The extent of our release shows government’s seriousness about reviving this economy and we are confident that the work we are doing will bear fruit; we are already beginning to see increased production in agriculture,’’ she said.

She added that government was making efforts to reposition the economy despite the huge drop in oil prices in line with promises made at the inception of the administration.