Buoyed by the rising oil prices in the
international market and increase in oil production, the federal
government has expressed confidence that the Nigerian economy will
record significant growth in the last two quarters of 2018,
notwithstanding activities surrounding the upcoming elections.
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| Udo Udoma |
This sanguine expectation was further
boosted by the fact that the seismic forces which led to the
deceleration of the growth in the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in the
second quarter are being addressed and would continue to be tackled to
achieve expected growth and other macroeconomic objectives by the end of
2018 and the first quarter of 2019.
The first quarter of the year had
registered a GDP growth rate of 1.95 per cent, which raised hope of
better performance, but this was followed by a 1.5 per cent in the
second quarter.
The Minister of Budge and National
Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, who expressed this optimism in an
interview published in the current edition of NextMoney magazine, said
the challenges that induced the lacklustre performance in the second
quarter were being nipped in the bud, saying the government was not
expecting anything not positive given the level of corrective measures
that had been put in place.
The federal government had projected
that the GDP growth would grow by 3.5 per cent, but according to the
minister, based on the actual performance of the economy in the first
two quarters of 2018, “we have revised our expectations for 2018
downwards to 2.5 per cent.”
Explaining the reasons for the poor
outcome in the second quarter, Udoma ,who said he was disappointed with
the outcome blamed the drop in GDP growth rate for the second quarter
principally on the contraction in the oil sector.
He noted that the oil and gas sector
contracted by -3.95 per cent in the second quarter of 2018, compared to a
growth rate of 14. 77 per cent recorded in the first of the year.
“This was due to some technical
projection issues which are being addressed by the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“For instance, average crude production
was only 1.84 million barrels a day in the second quarter of 2018 as
opposed to an average production of 2.0 million barrels a day in the
first quarter of 2018,” he said.
In addition, according to the minister,”
there was slight weaker growth in Agriculture sector in the second
quarter compared to a growth rate of 3 per cent in the first quarter of
2018.
“This was partly due to communal clashes
and other security challenges in the north-east and middle belt regions
of the country, which affected farms. Indeed, some states in the
north-west such as Zamfara , were affected by such clashes.
“These are however being contained and
there has been significant improvement in security across Nigeria. Crude
oil production and agriculture account for about 35 per cent of our
GDP,” he added.
Source: THIS DAY
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