ABUJA – The Minister of National Planning, Dr Abubakar Suleiman, on Tuesday said the Federal Government had succeeded in using fiscal and monetary policy levers to manage macro-economic vulnerability in the country.
Suleiman, who was represented by the Acting Secretary of the Commission, Mr Bassey Akpanyung, made the assertion in Abuja at the Third Annual National Policy Dialogue on Socio-Economic Development.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the policy dialogue was organised by the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan.
He said in the area of macro-economic stability, the Federal Government had made giant strides, by ensuring that the nation’s public debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was sustainable, in spite of the prolonged global economic and financial crisis.
“We have managed to balance our economy with the overall fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio of less than two per cent in that period and drastically reduced our vulnerability.
“Our external reserves remained strong at 37.4 billion dollars respectively at end October of 2014.
“Government has also brought inflationary pressure under control with the headline consumer price inflation hovering around 7.7 to 8.1 per cent between January 2013 and November 2014,’’ the minister said.
He said the country still faced challenges such as poverty, unemployment, insecurity, inequality in income and wealth and infrastructure gaps which were receiving considerable attention by government.
Suleiman said the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) had been developed, and the implementation of the plan had since commenced with the incorporation of the quick win projects into the 2014 budget.
The minister urged the research institutes to work together to actualise their research mandate in the country.
“The commission remains committed to the philosophy which says that development policy research can facilitate the resolution of developmental challenges and lead to effective formulation and implementation of blueprints.
“It is in this context that the commission will continue to work closely with NISER in the delivery of the research related mandate,’’ he said.
The Director-General of NISER, Prof. Olufemi Taiwo, said the purpose of policy dialogue was to disseminate the 2013 research findings bordering on the effects of cashless banking policy to the stakeholders.
Taiwo said other findings of the key studies are the response of Nigeria’s manufacturing sector to government policy and appraisal of disaster risk preparedness in Nigeria.
He urged the participants to make valuable comments that would further enrich the research findings. (NAN)
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