COVID-19: FG Spent N2.3trn As Stimulus Packages For Nigerians

The minister of state for budget and planning, Clem Agba, says the federal government of Nigeria has spent more than N2.3 trillion as stimulus packages to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was disclosed on Tuesday at the 3-Day 4th National Treasury Workshop which was organised by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation held in Akwa Ibom state. Information Guide Nigeria

According to THE CABLE, the fiscal and monetary policies supported states, businesses, households, and individuals through grants, tariff reductions, tax relief, payroll support, and direct support to the health sector.

The Minister said: “COVID-19, which started as a health pandemic, snowballed into an economic pandemic, so, to accelerate quick recovery of the economy, we developed some strategies which included; national stimulus economic package, mobilisation of external support and funding, and increase in non-oil revenue generation.

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“These were aimed at retaining and creating jobs, increasing our productivity ensuring social stability, and addressing long-standing economic vulnerabilities.

“Thus, the impact of COVID-19 and dwindling revenue from oil, in spite of these, we will continue to expand government policies to cushion the effect with a total estimated stimulus package by the federal government of Nigeria of 2.3 trillion naira.

“We took steps to increase our non-oil revenue generation. These steps included but were not limited to VAT reforms in the Finance Act 2020, customs administration enhancement, tax exemption, increased remittances and recovery of remitted revenue from government-owned enterprises.”

On his part, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel said the state government had set up a post-COVID-19 economic advisory committee which was is made up of professionals.

THE CABLE reports that Governor Udom who was represented by his deputy, Moses Ekpo revealed that the Akwa Ibom State Government had started implementing some of the committee’s recommendations.

He added that they have adopted applications of ICT and other tools of technology to stimulate entrepreneurial drives amongst the people. Jamb Result

Also speaking, The Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris noted that the workshop would provide financial shock-absorber to the government on how to manage any pandemic-induced financial challenges.

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