We inherited an empty treasury –Minister says

chika ebuzor

May 5, 2016 3:03 PM

Adeosun said this on Thursday. May 5, 2016, on a Channels Television program, Sunrise Daily.

Nigeria's Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun speaks at a news conference in Lagos, Nigeria, April 9, 2016.

The minister of finance,

Adeosun said this on Thursday. May 5, 2016, on a Channels Television program, Sunrise Daily.

She also said “What we are now trying to do is reset the economy so that we never end up in this situation again; and how do we do that? We have to have a more diversified economy, a more diversified revenue base.

“If you look at oil, its only 13% of our GDP but it represent 70% of government’s revenue which means if anything happens to oil, it affects everybody.”

Adding that “The question we are trying to now resolve is; the remaining 87% of GDP, why is it contributing so little to government’s revenue? If we are able to have those other revenues which are much more stable, predictable and less volatile, then if the oil price goes down, we’ll be able to maintain some level of stability.

“We have looked at what government has been spending money on; only 10% was spent on capital while 90% was spent on recurrent items like salaries, travelling, training and so on and those things don’t grow the economy, capital (expenditure) is what grows your economy.

“This budget that is being finalized has a 30% commitment to capital and we have said we want to maintain that commitment.”

Kemi Adeosun also disclosed that N299.7 billion was shared among the federal, states and local governments as revenue for March 2016.

chika ebuzor