By Francis Ogwo
President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that the country’s external reserves shot up from $33.42bn to $36bn between April and May.
This was made public during his 2020 Democracy Day Speech on Friday where he spoke on some achievements by his administration.
“We have witnessed eleven quarters of consecutive GDP growth since exiting recession.
The GDP grew from 1.91% in 2018 to 2.27% in 2019 but declined to 1.87% in the first quarter of 2020 as a result of the decline in global economic activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Every single economy in the world has suffered a decline. Ours has been relatively moderate.
“In order to stabilize the economy, the Monetary Authority took steps to build the external reserves which resulted in improved liquidity in the foreign exchange market.
“The external reserves grew from $33.42 billion on April 29th 2020 to about $36.00 billion in May 2020 which is enough to finance seven months of import commitments,” he said.
President Buhari reiterated the position of the agricultural sector in the diversification plans of his administration.
“Agriculture remains the key to our economic diversification strategy. The Presidential Fertilizer Initiative programme continues to deliver significant quantities of affordable and high-quality fertilizers to our farmers. This initiative has also revived 31 blending plants and created a significant number of direct and indirect jobs across the value chain.
“Through the food security initiative, we are promoting “Grow What We Eat” and “Eat What We Grow”. I am also delighted that more and more Nigerians are taking advantage of the opportunities in the agriculture and agri-business sector. I assure you that the government will continue to support the Agriculture sector through the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme and similar schemes.
“Our efforts on growing non-oil exports have started to yield some results. For instance, in the past year, our revenue from cocoa and sesame seeds increased by $79.4 million and $153 million,” the President added.
