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Kemi Adeosun – guardian.ng

LAGOS. – The Nigerian government last Thursday said it was under pressure as the country was technically in recession, assuring that measures were being taken to ensure a rebound of the economy.

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, made this known when she appeared before the Senate to brief it on fiscal policies being put in place to ameliorate the sufferings of the citizens.

She reiterated the commitment of the present administration to coming up with policies to address the problems confronting Nigerians, particularly the poor.

According to her, the government has made capital release of 248 billion naira (over $800 million) from the 2016 budget as part of efforts to get the economy going.

“Technically, in economic terms, we have had two periods of negative growth; we are in a recession but I don”t think we should dwell on that,” she said. “The most important thing is that we are going to get out of it,” the minister added.

“Our social intervention projects have been funded to provide relief to the poorest. Every local government will be touched by that program and we will continue to get out of it,” Adeosun said.

“While Nigeria lives in one of the toughest times, we are confident that the strategies we are deploying will get us out of the problems,” the minister told the senate.

She added that those strategies are about being disciplined about government spending to reduce wastage and leakages to ensure that the government invest in infrastructure that is needed to create jobs and growth in this economy.

While admitting that Nigerians were going through painful adjustments, she reassured that the government was on the right track and that no money was being wasted. – Xinhua