TRUE SIGNS OF TRANSFORMATION IN THE ECONOMIC SECTOR OF NIGERIA - ONYEKABA CHIOMA ROSEMARY

It's been a very difficult task keeping pace with the various plans, policies and programmes being executed by the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and I believe this has been the reason why a lot of people do not seem to believe that his administration has a lot when in the real sense they have done more than expected.

Any close observer will be amazed at the number of tangible achievements that it has attained in spite of the instability caused by the unprecedented internal security challenges which not only gulped enormous resources  but also impeded physical delivery of projects in some areas. Here is what he did on his first few years in office under the economic management sector:

- At 7% GDP growth, Nigeria's economy is one of the fastest growing in the world.

-The UN Conference on Trade and Development has named Nigeria as the No. 1 destination for investments in Africa, attracting over $7bn in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).\

 - In 2013, 1.6 million jobs were created directly and indirectly as a result of Federal Government initiatives.

- Exchange rate has stabilized between N155 and N160 in the last three years and has today gone as high as N210.

- Inflation rate now 8%(December 2013), down from 12.4% in 2011. It was projected to be at single digit for at least another year.

- External reserves even grew to 42.9 billion then, which was one of Nigerians highest ever.

- The Sovereign Wealth Fund was established with three components: Stability Fund, Infrastructure Fund and Future Generation Fund. This was created to help protect the economy against future shocks and provide for future generations of Nigerians.

- Nigeria's $1bn Eurobond was oversubscribed - a sign of confidence in the country's economy.

- Nigeria's budget deficit of 1.85% to GDP is one of the lowest in the world.

- Recurrent Expenditure, a major budgetary headache for decades, Is now on downward trend.

- The introduction of the Government Integrated Financial Management and Information System has improved the acquisition, allocation, utilization and conversion of public financial resources, using automated and integrated, effective, efficient and economic information systems.

- Personnel costs are being reduced through the integrated payroll and personnel information system (ippis), over N139.6bn has been saved and 46,821 ghost workers identified through ippis.

- With the Treasury Single Account (TSA) structure of government bank accounts, there is now a consolidated view of the cash position; more than 93 MDAs are currently on TSA and the government has gone from an overdraft of N102bn in 2011 to an average credit balance of N86bn as at 2013.


These are just tips of what his administration did in the economic sector in just a few years. Why don't we re-elect him to complete his good work? VOTE GEJ 2015! VOTE ONE NIGERIA! VOTE PDP!