Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, has said that Nigeria’s impressive economic growth would have been better if the country had been more secure.
Mrs. Ahmed said save for the country’s spate of insecurity that has affected growth in agriculture, the gross domestic product was bound to grow higher than 5.01% recorded in the second quarter, as announced last week by the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS).
The quarterly economic growth was the strongest in years.
The minister explained that insecurity and other factors slowed growth in the agriculture sector, thereby denying the economy a stronger growth rate.
“The 2021 second-quarter growth reflects better economic performance compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, we had negative growth of -6.10%. It is also better than the first quarter of 2021”, Mrs. Ahmed told newsmen during a press briefing where she reviewed the latest results from the NBS.
According to the minister, borrowings by the Government to finance critical projects amid dwindling revenue have so far been done “sensibly”, adding that the borrowings are needed to tackle the problems of the revenue shortfall.
Recall that last week, the House of Representatives criticised the government’s decision to borrow N5.62 trillion to finance the deficit in the 2022 Budget.
