TheCable

Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, says Nigeria is already on its way out of economic recession.

The minister also revealed that the planned social intervention scheme, school feeding programme, N5,000 stipend for the most vulnerable, and teacher’s recruitment programme will kick off in September.

“Problems begin to end when you begin to deploy the solutions. So for me, I think we are already coming out of it because I can see clearly that there is a difference in the way government is operating,” Adeosun said in Abuja over the weekend.

“There is a difference in the way people are spending government money. There is a difference and I see it in our monthly salary bill. So the problem has begun to end.

“Some of the initiatives we have put in place will help the people in the village. The N5,000 a month, the school feeding programme; every school, every village has a primary school.

“If you begin to cook one meal a day, you can imagine what that means for the nutrition of the children. You imagine what that means for the women who make may be N10,000 a month from the cooking. That is huge for some people.”

WE SAW THE PROBLEM COMING AND PLANNED FOR IT

She said “this government has begun to work on the solutions; the palliatives. We saw this problem coming and even before the problem came we had factored N500 billion into the budget for solutions”.

“I think from the signs we see, Nigeria is going to come out of this and we are going to come out of it stronger,” she said.

“Why do I say this? Because people are focusing now on the things that we need to focus on. There is a huge increase in the production of rice. People are going back to the farms.

“There is need for rice mills and other food processing plants. This is because just growing rice, cassava or cocoa is not where the money is. It is in the processing. So we need to process. We need transport to be able to move the goods. That is why you see that the government is making investments in rails, roads, power and airports.”

BUHARI’S EMERGENCY BILL: UNUSUAL TIMES, UNUSUAL MEASURES

“Truncating bidding process and open procurement is what we want. What we need is speed and openness. That is why we need the national assembly to help us truncate the law,” Adeosun added.

“We don’t have such powers. These are unusual times that require unusual measures. We are already talking to members of the national assembly, explaining to them why this is necessary.

“So that when we release money, it is not just sitting in the TSA account but it is actually going down.”

ELIMINATING GHOST WORKERS FOR REAL WORKERS

“We are funding the social intervention programme and I think that is very important. That is money in people’s pockets. There is a lot that has been done that are beginning to bear fruits.

“Let me give you an example of the police recruitment. Police are currently at the final stages of recruiting about 10, 000. It is the savings that we have made from cleaning up the ghost workers that is enabling us to create additional jobs.

“You see recruitment going on in FIRS, in Railway Corporation and it is being done transparently.  I think there is hope for Nigerians.”