Nigeria should be technically out of recession by Q3 – Kyari
Nigeria should technically be out of recession by the end of the third quarter of this year, Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) Mr. Kyari A. Bukar has said.
Speaking yesterday when he visited the head office of Media Trust Limited, publishers of the Daily Trust and other titles, Mr. Bukar based his forecast on the slight turn around in the economy from the first quarter of 2017.
He listed stability in global oil price and increase in crude oil production due to peace in the Niger Delta region as key contributors to this growth.
“We have been in recession for quite a long time; it didn’t just start in 2016 because if you look quarter-on-quarter I think somewhere around 2014 we started having reduced growth. Technically we went into recession the second quarter of 2016,” he said.
“Now, when the economy begins to slightly turn around which is what has happened from the first quarter of this year, then reprieve is around the corner. Technically by the third quarter of this year we should see ourselves out of recession,” Bukar said.
He identified power and agriculture as areas the government needs to pay attention if it must further catalyze the economy.
Founded over 23 years ago, the NESG was incorporated as a non-profit and non-partisan private sector organization with a mandate to champion the reform of the Nigerian economy.
It had its establishment 1993, conceived the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) as a platform for bringing together private sector leaders and senior public sector officials to discuss and dialogue on the future of the Nigerian Economy.
This year’s summit is scheduled to hold October 9-11, 2017.
On the relationship between the NESG and the government, Bukar said the present government has shown commitment to engaging and accepting recommendations of the group but with a certain level of skepticism.
“The first summit we had when the president prior in to came in (he didn’t attend though the vice president did) and we predicted recession to be in the second half of 2016. By middle of 2016 they were the ones reaching out to participate at the next summit,” he added. MEDVIEW