Nigeria's economy has not collapsed

The Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi stated this, adding that the year 2016 is going to be tough given the fact that crude oil price has not stabilised.

In a roundtable Discussion titled Nigerian Economy 2016 : Charting way forward , Amaechi said “We are going to have tough time in 2016, because the crude oil benchmark that the Federal Government fixed for the Budget is less than what the price is right now.”

“If Nigerians had revolted during the period that public funds were missing and stolen things would not have been like this.”

Mr. Bismarck Rewane has also said that the Federal Government’s fiscal and monetary policies need to be harmonised in order to give investors confidence to invest in the country.

READ: Government has potential to finance N2.2trn budget deficit via capital market

Rewane, who is the Managing Director of Financial Derivative Company, while analysing the economic situation of Nigeria said “The country is in crunch time. Government has budgeted 25 increases in expenditure; subsidy has been removed. But the missing thing is monetary policy stability. The exchange rate policy needs to be changed. We had money in the past and squandered it. Now crude oil price is less than the budgeted crude oil bench mark by the Federal Government in 2016 budget. The economic reality is that 2016 would be worst for sub Saharan Africa countries. Most country would seek IMF support, but Nigeria not inclusive. The increase in interest rate in US will continue and this will likely affect some countries.”

Nigeria is currently battling with a freak incident related to the missing 2016 budget presented by the presidency to the senate.

The sooner it is able to get things in order, the better.