FEC receives report on 3.1% growth in Nigerian economy

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) received a report about Nigeria’s 3.1 per cent economic growth in the first quarter of 2022 at its weekly meeting on Wednesday.

Zainab Ahmed, the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, made the declaration at the end of the meeting presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The minister noted, however, that the report showed contractions in some sectors of the economy.

“The Federal Executive Council received a report from the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning for the first quarter of 2022.

“I know that this report has been out in the media since last week Monday, but because we didn’t have FEC meeting last week we presented it today.

“The report shows that the economy grew by 3.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 compared to a growth of 0.5 per cent in the corresponding period in 2021.

“This growth shows a gradual economic stability from the recession that we witnessed in 2020; and also it shows the sixth quarter of positive growth that the Nigerian economy has presented,’’ she said.

Mrs Ahmed added that of the 46 economic activities, the bulk sector performance showed that services sector grew strongly by 4.7 per cent; agriculture grew by 3.61 per cent while industry contracted by -6.81 per cent.

According to her, there is also a significant contraction in the crude oil, petroleum and natural gas sector by -26.04 per cent.

“Coal mining sector also declined, while oil refining recorded the biggest contraction of -44.26 per cent.

“There has been growth in some sectors; there are significant contractions in others, but the net effect is positive growth.

“We are very mindful of the fact that unless we have most of the sectors growing, especially growth in jobs impacted sectors, the positive growth will not be directly felt by the people.

“We also reported to Council that inflationary rate had started going upward to the extent that the CBN had to adjust Monetary Policy Rate to 13 per cent.

“The adjustment was made at the CBN’s last Monetary Policy Committee meeting to manage the cost of inflation.

“Council has decided to step up special efforts to look at sectors that are not growing and also to look at how we can grow the other sectors better,’’ she said.

The minister said that council also decided that the National Food Security Council would very quickly meet to address the issue of inflation in the prices of foodstuff.

(NAN)