OKONJO-IWEALA TO GOVERNORS; ECONOMY IS DOING WELL!

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has ruled out resigning based on the performance of the economy. She told reporters in Abuja yesterday that she is responsible to President Goodluck Jonathan who appointed her. Governors called on her to run the economy well or resign after a meeting on Tuesday night. But yesterday, the minister said she would not resign because the economy is doing well.

She said: “I will not involve myself in political issues with the governors; we are here to manage the economy for the good of the nation and what we are doing here is based on facts on the ground. I am minister for the Economy. I’m working for President Goodluck Jonathan . I’m answerable to him. Do I look like someone who is preparing to resign? I am not resigning. I dey kampe. I have a very committed and dedicated team and so I am not going to respond to such issues.” On the state of the economy, she said it “is doing reasonably well but not perfect and the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan wants to focus on concrete achievements”.

According to her, the evidence that the economy is sound can be seen from the fact that nine state governments want to float bonds from the Nigerian capital market. She noted that if the economy was unhealthy, the state governments would not have had the confidence to float the bonds. According to her, “you cannot float bonds in a bad economy”. Mrs Okonjo-Iweala praised the nine governors who have indicated interest in floating the bonds for the confidence they have in the economy. She urged Nigerians “to have confidence in ourselves”.

However, she said citizens and lawmakers in the states should monitor what the proceeds of the bonds are used for, noting that they should not leave the monitoring to only the Federal Government and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On the economy, she said the government has the resources to manage it and does not need outside assistance.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said Nigeria’s macro-economic fundamentals are strong, with $46 billion in the foreign reserve and $5.1 billion in the excess crude account. She cautioned that the $5.1 billion in the excess crude account will be drawn down today after payment has been made from it to oil marketers whose payments are due.

The economy saved a lot of money with the measures put in place to pay oil marketers as a fall out of the subsidy row last year. These measures, she said, included avoiding conflicts of interest and the introduction of checks and balances. The minister said N2.2 trillion was paid to oil marketers in 2011 but after the measures were instituted and a forensic audit carried out, N971 billion was paid in 2012 and there are wrong indications that about N950 billion will be paid to marketers this year. She said inflation and exchange rate fundamentals remained stable with the GDP growth better than six per cent, thus making Nigeria “one of the fastest growing economies worldwide”.

Source; thenationonlineng.com