Okonjo-Iweala: warns of tough times

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged Nigerians to brace for tougher times as the effect of the sliding oil prices hit home.

Nigeria depends on il income to fund 83 per cent of its expenditure.

Okonjo-Iweala, who is also the co-ordinating minister of the Nigerian economy said the country would this month begin to feel the impact of the falling global oil prices, which started in June. Her prescription: a review of expenditures and building economic buffers through budgets that would be based on modest oil prices.

According to a report by The Punch, the minister spoke in Lagos at the Africa Financial Summit organised by the Institute of International Finance and Access Bank Plc.

According to her, sound macroeconomic management is crucial to Nigeria at this time, while also emphasizing the need to plug all revenue leakages.

The minister said the global fall in the prices of export commodities such as gold, iron ore and agricultural produce such as cocoa, cotton and coffee was bound to affect most African economies, which relied on commodity export as the major source of revenue.