Government withdraws N300billion crude oil money for economic stimulus

By Elizabeth Archibong

The National Economic Council on Tuesday approved the withdrawal of ₦300 billion from the excess crude account, to cushion the effect of the liquidity crunch in the banking sector, which was uncovered during the ongoing banking reforms.

While briefing reporters after the council’s meeting, which was chaired by the Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, the Minister of Finance, Mansur Muhtar said that the money will be shared amongst the three tiers of government, next week, after the Federation Account Allocation Committee works out the details for sharing the money.

Mr. Muhtar said that the decision was taken as a palliative measure to cushion the nation’s economic recession and to stabilise the economy from the impending cash crunch.

“NEC has taken some decisions to give support to the measures of the central bank in strengthening the economy,” he said. “The economy is in a cash crunch and the banks are not lending anymore, as they should. To stimulate growth and development and for the economy not to contract, the council saw the need to pump in some more funds into it.”

The National Economic Council also approved a new blue print for the vision 20:20 economic policy, which will also be ratified next week for final presentation and launching by the Federal Government. It, however, has to be approved by the National Assembly.

The governor of Akwa Ibom, Godswill Akpabio and his Abia State counterpart, Ikedi Ohakim, who were also at the press briefing, said that the council also reviewed the successes recorded by the recent amnesty granted militants in the Niger Delta.

“Having reviewed the policy of the amnesty, which expired on Sunday, NEC expressed satisfaction with the conduct of repentant militants... They will be totally rehabilitated and we want to assure them that there is no cause to regret dropping their arms,” Mr. Akpabio said. The governors also said that the

“Council was also of the opinion that all the state governors should take the public procurement bill seriously, by passing the bill to law as it will help reduce corruption.”

Back

Dear Reader.
While we value your feedback we may block inappropriate comment. Please feel free to respond to new comments. Note also that 234NEXT bears no responsibility for what readers post and is not liable for any form of impersonation.

Reader Comments (10)

Posted by lateeisha on Oct 07 2009

am sure most of this money would end up in some people's pockets.

Posted by daps on Oct 07 2009

it is a pitty dt ds money won't reflect on the economic issues, it wil only reflect in dia pocket 4 dia family problems.

Posted by demola on Oct 07 2009

A country well blessed by God, but her children are languishing in pain and penury. 300,000,000,000 will be mismanaged again!!!!!

Posted by Calista on Oct 07 2009

The money had been withdraw for those that they think it is meant for (Bamboos). But one thing that baffles abt the matter of this country is that it has been announce this money had been withdrawed and where it went you will not know.

Posted by Ahamefula on Oct 07 2009

Dear publisher, you have a nice work here, but you should carefully proof-read your work before posting it, "Abia State Governor is Chief T. A Orji, and not Ikedi Ohakim" . well let's hope that something positive comes out of the fund.

Posted by Hadiza on Oct 07 2009

Shamsudeen Usman is not the Minister of Finance. Mansur Muhtar is.

Posted by Boogie on Oct 07 2009

The money will go into private pockets though it should naturally boost the economy if its not repatriatedas laundered funds

Posted by Julie Sanusi-Williams on Oct 07 2009

When I read this stimulus package nonsense, "These people are not serious" was my first reaction. My reaction was wrong. These people are serious about diverting public money into private pockets, and nobody or organisation domestic or international will stop them. The article claims that the money will be the money "will be shared amongst the three tiers of government..." This is a classic scheme. Notice how vague they are about the allocation of the money or the specificity of the purpose. Given that that has never been any honesty and transparency in the Nigerian government handling of public money, is it that difficult for the various levels of government to publish for public knowledge the projects they plan to sink the funds into, with clear goals which they hope to achieve. Rather, they are all over the map on what the money will achieve. The truth is that they would not achieve anything with this money except to transfer it into private pockets. We all try to be hopeful that at some point these dubious characters will have some sympathy on the suffering masses of Nigerian. They will never be sympathetic unless and until they are stopped. Barring that,the country is doomed.

Posted by Charles Onwuegbusi on Oct 09 2009

If they have this amount of money in excess account, why can't they pump that money in infrastructure building which will create small businesses and create jobs which will in turn stimulate the economy. Is this not the better thing to do rather than giving them away to those corrupt banks?