Our Biggest Challenge Has Been The Economy, Says Osinbajo

  

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo says the biggest challenge faced by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has been the economy. Osinbajo said this  in his Democracy Day speech, which also marks the second anniversary of the Buhari Administration.

“Admittedly, the economy has proven to be the biggest challenge of all,” the Acting President said, noting that it was a challenge the administration took seriously, considering the impact the recession was having on Nigerians.

   More so, the economy along with security and corruption were the three specific areas the administration concluded required immediate intervention. Of the impact the economic challenges had on Nigerian, Osinbajo said, “Through no fault of theirs, some companies shut down their operations, others downsized; people lost jobs, had to endure rising food prices.

“In some states, civil servants worked months on end without the guarantee of a salary, even as rents and school fees and other expenses continued to show up like clockwork.” The Acting President, who noted that the Federal Government has been extremely mindful of the many sacrifices that Nigerians have had to make over the last few years, however, said the government was on the right path to turn things around for the better.

   Nigeria's Investment Inflow Shrinks By $4.5bn . According to him, the administration’s work on the economic front has been targeted at a combination of short-term interventions to cushion the pain, as well as medium to long-term efforts aimed at rebuilding an economy that is no longer helplessly dependent on the price of crude oil.

   He listed the interventions to include a series of bailout packages for state governments – to enable them to bridge their salary shortfalls, as well as the Social Intervention Programme, which he described as the most ambitious in the history of the country.

Highlighting the impact of the Social Investment Programme, which kicked off at the end of 2016, Osinbajo said, “Its Home Grown School Feeding component is now feeding more than one million primary school children across seven states and would be feeding three million by the end of the year.

“N-Power, another component has engaged 200,000 unemployed graduates — none of whom needed any ‘connections’ to be selected.”

   Other projects, according to him, include giving micro-credit to a million artisans, traders and market men and women; the execution of road and power projects; and presidential initiative on fertiliser.