Daily Trust (Abuja)

Nigeria: Excess Crude - Okonjo-Iweala Warns of Economic Doom

By Turaki A. Hassan, 6 July 2012

Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has pleaded with President Goodluck Jonathan and the 36 state governors to be prudent in their expenditure in order to allow the Excess Crude Account to grow to $10billion.

Speaking during a meeting with members of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations in Abuja yesterday, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala warned against reckless spending by the various tiers of governments.

She said, "It will be very wise and prudent for this country to build buffers because even though our performance in terms of growth is not that bad, we've gone from 7.3 percent last year to about 6.17 percent in the first quarter of this year.

"I'd suggested to Mr President and the governors that the excess crude should be allowed to build up to at least $10 billion its presently at $5.8 billion which is good, its building up from about $4 billion a few months ago and we need to let it build to $10 billion so that we can have three months of expenditures just to cover the whole country in case anything happens."

Speaking on the performance of the 2012 budget by government ministries, departments and agencies, she told the lawmakers that the National Security Adviser (NSA) has utilised 98 percent of first and second quarter budget allocation.

Okonjo-Iweala disclosed that the NSA office has the highest level of resources utilisation which is up to 98 percent.

She also puts the utilisation of ministries of agriculture at 12.17 percent, environment 55 percent, transport 44 percent, women affairs 89 percent and works 37 percent.

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  • Isunola Asi Anishere
    Jul 8 2012, 08:07
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    Those who have ears, let them hear, from Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to President Jonathan and the 36 state governors for prudence in their expenditures. What about our Education and Health Sectors. Please do something about these, as the better performance of these sectors will impact possitively on the poor Nigerians. Please, invest heavily on these sectors when the Excess Crude Account grows to 10 billion dollars as envisaged. Please, Education, Health, Infrastructures, Agriculture should be targetted. Let there be fiscla discipline for therein lies socio-economic growth.