Our economy is healthy, growing – Okonjo-Iweala replies critics

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Friday at Ogwashi Uku, Aniocha South Local Council of Delta State slammed critics who opined that the economy was not growing.

Okonjo-Iweala, a former World Bank Vice-President, who spoke during a joint inspection of work at the Ogwashi-Uku Multi-purpose Earth Dam project being executed by the Federal Government with her Water Resources Minister counterpart, Mrs. Sera Chekpe, said President Goodluck Jonathan's mid-term report focused on the achievable and not what the government was planning to do.

She insisted that the economy was healthy and growing, noting that what the government was striving to achieve was the generation of more employment opportunities for young Nigerians.

'Mr. President pointed out in his mid-term report that anybody can go and verify if it is true whether the economy was growing and should finish up at 6.5 to 6.75 per cent this year. It is true that inflation has come down at 8.4 per cent; it is all facts. It is true that the Lagos-Kano rail is running. Go and ask the people who have used that rail. These are facts that people can check so we are not talking about what we are going to do, but what we have done,' she noted.

Against the backdrop of concerns that the Federal Government may stop the execution of constituency projects as they are perceived to be avenues of corruption, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy said the government would fully fund them as contained in the 2013 budget.

Noting that priority attention would be given to the funding and execution of constituency projects in the country, she disclosed that the Ministry of Water Resources has the largest number of constituency projects. She added that the duty of the Ministry of Special Duties is to monitor the execution of the projects.

Chekpe said that when the Ogwashi-Uku Multi- Purpose Earth Dam Project is completed, it would change the economic landscape of the community, as more jobs would be provided for the teaming unemployed youths even as it would create business opportunities for the people.