Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday said the economic recession
being experienced presently in Nigeria will be shortlived. Osinbajo said
this while speaking to journalists in Osun state. According to
Osinbajo, life will not be bleak for Nigerians as government is putting
in eforts to ensure that the economy bounces back and that those who say
life will be bleak, we must ignore them.
"The reasons for the recession are quite obvious. One of the most
important reasons is that, as of February 2016 for example, we were
generating 5000 MW of power. That is the highest ever in the history of
the country.
In that same month, the vandalization of the
pipelines started. So we lost 60% of gas and 60% of revenues. There is
no where in the world, no economy that can lose 60% of its revenue and
not go into some form of recession. The recession in many ways can very
quickly be resolved. Once we are able to resolve some of the issues
concerning vandalization of the pipelines, oil prices remain stable and
the diversification we are trying to ensure happens.
We are trying for example to make sure we refine must of our petroleum
products. So we are investing more in the refineries. We are asking
private investors to come into the refineries. If we are able to do
that, 30% of petroleum products will not be imported. That means that
our foreign exchange reserves will be maintained. If our foreign
exchange reserves are maintained, our currency will improve. I don't
think life will be bleak. Those who say that it will be bleak, we must
ignore them"he said
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