Abuja — The Presidential Steering Committee on the Global Economic Crisis has recommended an injection of a total of $500 million (about N75 billion) into the economy to help reduce the impact of the global financial crisis on Nigerians.

A source who was privy to the contents of the proposals submitted to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua over the weekend told THISDAY that the fund is to be used to restore pensioners fund, payment of local contractors debts and for stimulating employment in the country.

He said the proposal was part of the Committee's recommendations aimed at infusing more funds into the economy while at the same time addressing the immediate and likely future effects of the global financial crisis on Nigeria's economy.

The recommendation of the committee is coming against the background of arguments for and against the idea of offering bail-outs to some sectors of the economy to save them from the damaging impact of the financial meltdown.

According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), commercial banks have lost N784 billion due to the meltdown, while the Retiree Savings Account of the National Pension Fund lost N33.023 billion or 7 per cent of its total funds owing to the crash in the stock market in the past year, said the National Pension Commission.

Part of the terms of reference of the committee was to try and assess the impact of the crisis on the country's economy and to offer some recommendations on ways to stimulate the economy to be able to withstand the shock.

In its first action, the Presidential Steering Commit-tee had recommended the introduction of full deregulation of the country's downstream petroleum sector as a means of stabilising fuel supply and checking financial leakages associated with operations of subsidy within the sector.

In recommending the creation of the N75 billion stimulus package, the source said the committee members were of the opinion that it would help to take care of losses arising from the slump of the stock market which may have affected the pensions fund as well as mobilising the contractors to be able to assist government in its infrastructure development programme.

Another area which the committee were said to have insisted on deploying the fund is the employment generation activities.

THISDAY learnt that the committee is advising government to vote more money to encourage genuine job creation initiatives, skills acquisition and poverty alleviation schemes that would have immediate impact on the unemployment situation in the country.

Organised labour represented by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) is said to have formed strong lobby within the panel leading to decisions to propose bail-out for pension funds and for provision of more job opportunities.

Yar'Adua had charged the committee at its inaugural meeting in January to suggest ways to stabilise the falling naira and halt the sliding exchange rate in addition to initiating the appropriate steps to take to stabilise the economy.

"This committee was set up to evolve and drive the framework for our proactive response to the challenges posed by the on-going global economic crisis on our national economy in a holistic and coordinated manner," he said.

The steering committee has the Governor of Lagos state, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Isa Yuguda of Bauchi, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo and Bukola Saraki of Kwara, as well as the ministers of finance, national planning, and petroleum as members.

Other members who attended the inaugural meeting were Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi, Chief Economic Adviser to the president; Chukwuma Soludo, governor of the CBN; Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa; President of the National Economic Summit Group (NESG), Bismark Rewane, an economist; Tony Elumelu representing the Bankers' Committee and Aliko Dangote representing Nigerian industrialists.