Poverty, economic distortions deepen daily-Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says time is not on the side of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration because the poverty situation and the economic distortions deepen every single day.

He charged the ministers and stakeholders to accelerate the implementation of the N2.3 trillion stimulus package to mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.

He gave the charge while presenting an overview of the Economic Sustainability Plan at the two-day First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat organized for ministers, permanent secretaries and top government functionaries.

“Everything that we are doing has to be done immediately” because of the economic distortions and hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are already in ‘Day 67’ since the plan. Nothing is going to happen by magic, we have to simply do this stuff.We got to ensure that we have the money and ensure that day by day, we are measuring our achievements and trying to ensure that we do the things that we need to do. And we simply are not favoured by time, every single day the poverty situation and the economic distortions deepen.

“Everybody recognizes that the only way out of this particular problem is to ensure that we fund production, enable consumer spending so that people can go and buy things, and we have to put money in people’s hands.

“I think that if we are able to implement this faithfully, if we are able to ensure that we bring in the resources, then we certainly will be able to turn around, the economic fortunes of Nigeria.

“The truth is that, if you look at stimulus packages all over the world, what has happened is that, in many economies that have been able to lessen the impact of COVID-19, the funds have been provided and they have been provided at great pains.”