- We’ll Grow Economy as Rapidly as We Can – Udoma
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, said on Wednesday that with the exit from recession, the task ahead was to grow the Nigerian economy in a rapid manner.
Udoma, who stated this while reacting to the Gross Domestic Product growth rate report released on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics, noted that the improvement in economic performance was an indication that the objective of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan was being achieved.
In a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Akpandem James, the minister said with the coming of the economy out of recession, investors’ confidence would begin to return to the economy.
He added that the exit from recession was a testimony to the fact that government was moving the economy in the right direction.
The statement quoted the minister to have said, “Now that we have accomplished the first task, attention will now be on growing the economy as rapidly as we can.
“We are happy that people are beginning to see the results of the efforts we have been putting through in the last two years to get the economy back on track and to place it on the path of growth and sustained development.”
According to him, as the economy continues to grow, the people will begin to feel the impact of the growth rate.
Udoma pointed out that the major focus of the government was to spend in strategic sectors like infrastructure, agriculture and solid minerals so as to galvanise economic activities and empower the people.
Efforts, he said, were also been concentrated on increasing revenue generation to meet with the challenges of the economy, which was why the government had been paying attention to the challenges of the Niger Delta region.
The minister, however, explained that much more work would be done to ensure that the growth was sustained.
He added that the government would continue to pursue aggressively the implementation of the ERGP, while also working on improving the ease of doing business to attract more investments.