Fg Willing To Inject N350bn To Revive Economy

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has revealed its intention to inject N350 billion into the economy in a bid to revive the ailing sectors, particularly by reclaiming the jobs of Nigerians who were once employed.

This was revealed by Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance, as she addressed reporters at the end of the two-day national economic council retreat revealing that issues aimed at restoring hope to Nigerians were discussed.

She declared that the government had embarked on plans to ensure that the 1.97 million Nigerians who have become unemployed since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power as a result of the current economic situation are re-employed.

“We are already discussing with some of the contractors who will be paid these monies and the objectives from the overall criteria is how many Nigerians would be re-engaged,” she said.

“We are specifically looking at contractors who have laid off staff and how many Nigerians are you going to put back to work as a result of this money that we are planning to release and we believe that this would bring significant economic activity.

“The general resolve of the house and consensus was that there was a need to bring in more cost efficiency in their operations. In particular, to look at the setting up of the efficiency unit within the state governments, to rationalise expenditure and of course to increase internally generated revenue (IGR).

“To that end there was a need to generate data because data is the basis of any revenue collecting efforts. The Federal and State Inland Revenue Services collaborate to do join audits to invest in revenue, relevant technology and efforts to improve collection.

“There is a need to develop incentives for both federal and state revenue generating agencies to ensure that there is an alignment of interest.

“There is a focus at state level on property and consumption taxes to help in improving revenue in a fair manner. Tax payer education must be intensified and to expand the tax base and ensure that there is a buy-in in the revenue collection agencies from the populace.”

Story by David Oputah