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Nigerian economy is quite diversified -—NBS

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Nigerian economy is quite diversified -—NBS

The Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Yemi Kale, said the Nigerian economy could be regarded as a diversified economy based on the Q2 2018 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released recently.

Kale made this disclosure while answering questions on the effectiveness of the Federal Government’s diversification policy in a tweet chat on Thursday.

The NBS boss said the services sector grew by over 50 percent in the second quarter of the year, adding that the performance was the first since the 2016 economic recession.

According to him, the 1.50 percent real GDP growth recorded in Q2 was largely driven by the services sector.

“The best assessment of any plan or policy of government is to look at the underlying statistics. If you look at the GDP numbers for Q2 2018 published early this week by our Office, you will observe that the economy is quite diversified.

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“The services sector accounts for over 50% of our economy, and for the first time since the recession, the services sector posted positive numbers and was mainly responsible for the growth recorded during the quarter,” Kale said.

He, however, said the benefits of diversified growth would become more evident and impacting on the citizenry if the government could provide incentives to support domestic production and stimulate consumption.

The NBS had released the GDP report for Q2 2018 on Monday, the report noted that the rate at which the Nigerian economy grew in the quarter slowed to 1.50 percent when compare with 1.95 percent recorded in the previous quarter.

Despite the sluggish growth, the non-oil sector of the economy grew by 2.05 percent from 0.76 percent in Q1 2018, while the oil sector contracted by -3.95 percent from 14.77 percent in Q1 2018.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Undo Udoma, had said the growth in the non-oil sector was an evidence that the implementation of the targeted policies and programs of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) by the Federal Government was yielding positive results.

The ERGP is a four-year medium term strategic blueprint of the Federal Government aimed at diversifying the economy away from dependence on the oil and gas sector.

The plan covers 2017 to 2020 and focuses on human capital investment, restoration of economic growth, and building a competitive economy.
By Oluwasegun Olakoyenikan….

 

 

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