Udoma says Nigeria’s foreign reserves drop to $24.74bn in September

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, has said that Nigeria’s foreign reserve has reduced from $26.51 billion in the second quarter of 2016 to $24.74 billion in September.

Udoma said this at the 57th annual conference of Nigeria Economic Society (NES) with the theme: “the Developmental State and Diversification of the Nigerian Economy’’ on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said Nigeria had revenue and foreign currency concentration problems, stressing that diversification was the only solution adding that because of the  four strategic pipeline terminals that were blow up, Nigeria had been unable to achieve its 2016 Budget production target of 2.2 million barrels a day. Udoma said that in August, the country was barely able to produce 1.1 million barrels.

“Last week production level rose up to 1.7 million barrels, still a far cry from the country’s target of 2.2 million barrel. We are taking a number of immediate measures to raise revenues to strategically spend our way out of recession. We are taking measures to address the disruption in Niger Delta to restore production.

“We are fast tracking our efforts to raise foreign currency loans that we have projected in the 2016 budget, from AfDB, World Bank, Chinese Exim Bank as well as Euro Bond issue. We are happy to note that the president of AfDB has announced that we should expect, among other facilities, a budget support of $1 billion dollars next month,’’ he said.

He usd the opportunity to reveal that the economic management team had been working to assemble a stimulus package to be raised from concessioning advance payment for licence renewals, use of recovered funds and some asset sales.

Udoma said that the package was being worked upon and was yet to be finalised, adding that to achieve this speedily, “we are working to fast track procedures through presidential directives and legislation.

“I want to emphasise that notwithstanding the current economic challenges we face, we are not discouraged at all and this is a crisis we must not waste. We should see this crisis as an opportunity for us as a country to make those major structural changes needed to change this economy for good. We should use this crisis to implement the reforms needed to unlock the economic potentials of the non-oil and high employment sectors.”

He said such would achieve a sustainable inclusive growth that would enable the majority of Nigerians to become more productive.

Udoma said that government was working on a programme with the private sector to launch made-in-Nigeria campaign. He said that the intent of the programme was to encourage more production and consumption of made in Nigeria goods and services.

“We believe that with more patronage, Nigerian producers will be encouraged to improve the quality of their products. We should encourage the branding of Nigerian products by self-regulatory industry bodies such as wine makers have in France. Made-in-Nigeria should become a badge of quality. As the quality of our goods and service improve, both local and international demand for them will increase.

Udoma said high local demand would give Nigerian producers the platform to explore the export market. He said that one of the fastest routes to grow the economy and create jobs for teeming population was by pursuing export-led growth. The minister said that the strategy held high promise for adding to the foreign reserves and further stabilising the Naria.