Economic team competent, says Akande

The Presidency on Sunday in Abuja said that the Federal Government’s Economic team is strong and competent to discharge its duties.

Mr Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, said this when he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.

He was reacting to the allegation in some quarters that the country remained in recession due to poor handling of the economy by officials.

According to him President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic team is composed of competent and tested people with significant private sector experiences.

 “The major problem of Nigeria economy is a problem of vandalism of our oil installations and also the drop in the prices in the international oil market.

“Look at what we have been able to do in spite of all these problems. In spite of the drop in revenue we have paid out almost N800 billion for infrastructure, for capital projects, more than what was budgeted for last year.

”As a matter of fact, If you go and compare it, I am sure that you will find out that the last couple of years it is the highest that has been paid for capital expenditure in recent years.

“We have almost paid about N735 billion or thereabout. Because we understand infrastructure must play mostly a leading role, if you look the way we have spent  our resources in the last several years.’’

Akande noted that in the past when the country earned more from oil most of the budget went into recurrent expenditure with less attention to capital projects.

He said:“When Nigeria had money, and selling oil for over 115 dollars, when we should have developed infrastructure, this did not happen.

“But now that money is hard, we are spending more on infrastructure.“That should tell you that we have a capable team.

 

NAN