The minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, Thursday, responded to comments credited to former minister of education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, to the effect that the Buhari administration’s policies have hurt, not helped the poor.
Read: ‘Archaic and opaque’ | Ezekwesili rubbishes Buhari’s economic policies
Adeosun who was speaking on a Channels TV program–Sunrise Daily–said that the Muhammadu Buhari administration is implementing a planned economy and does not operate a command and control economic system as alleged by the former minister.
“I disagree with Mrs Ezekwesili.
“We have a planned economy, we are going to pump N350b into the economy until we see growth.”
“There are no quick solutions to the current economic woes, the job will be done painstakingly and we will come out of it better.”
The minister also revealed that the present government is borrowing to pay salaries and meet its obligations.
She said revenues are leaking and the government is still trying to block all the leakages. She also revealed that N19b was spent on roads construction in 2014 while a whopping N64b was spent on government travels.
She said that Travel Expenditure will drop by about 20% resulting in a cost-cutting of N13.88 billion. Such large savings from travel, which should ordinarily not be a major expense item for the government, will become available for investment in capital projects such as roads, power, railways and public health facilities, she explained.
According to the minister, to reduce the incidence of cash, the deployment of Ministerial Debit Cards is being piloted to reduce stealing by government officials and to trace spending.
Adeosun confirmed that the Buhari administration is seeking for loans from foreign lenders.
Credit: Per second news
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