Recession: Buhari’s economic recovery plan to be launched next month – VP Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has revealed that plans had been concluded to launch the economic recovery plan of the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration in February.



He also stated that the federal government was critically considering the option of tapping into the Pension Funds for massive investments in infrastructures. Osinbajo spoke while fielding questions at two separate panels tagged “panel of Building Africa” and “International Business Interaction Group of investors” focused exclusively on Nigeria on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday. He said that massive investments in the people and their skills would bring about economic prosperity.

Osinbajo’s presentations were encapsulated in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Laolu Akande. “The Vice President noted that the Buhari administration is “committed to investing more in infrastructure,” than in previous times by ensuring that 30% of the budget goes into capital expenditure.

“Besides, he disclosed that the government is working on how to tap into Nigeria’s huge Pension Fund to finance infrastructure in the country. “To do this he stated that “we have to first derisk” such financing models for infrastructure. “An active engagement with, and encouraging the private sector, he said, is also of a great deal, referring to the example of the 650,000bpd refinery project of the Dangote Group, which is going to be the largest single-line refinery in the world.

“Assuring that the Buhari administration is very confident about the recovery of the Nigerian economy, Prof. Osinbajo said “it is not difficult to get out of where we are if we understand why we are where we are.” “He reminded his audience that the Nigerian economy remains indisputably the biggest in terms of size of the economy. “Speaking at the Business Interaction Group attended by several international and local investors and business interests, and hosted by the Nigerian delegation, the Vice President assured that the newly developed Economic Recovery Growth Plan of the Buhari administration has been specifically designed to take the country out of recession and in the long term continue to grow the economy.

“He said the planning of the 2017 was based on the ERGP, which he said would be formally launched next month. “Prof. Osinbajo gave the example of the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme where for the first time half a Trillion Naira is being budgeted by the Federal Government for Social Investment Programmes. “It is about investment in people, in their skills, in youths, that we have a N500B allocation in our budget last year and proposed for this year also.

“It is an investment in education and educating large numbers of people in a short time, it’s a radical thing to make that kind of serious investment in education. “He also referred to the planned N100,000 supporting grants to students of higher institutions in Science, Technology, Enginerring & Maths, STEM”, the statement stated.