Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said Tuesday that COVID-19 pandemic deepens the poverty, economic distortions and hardship in the country on daily basis.
Osinbajo said this in a presentation on the Economic Sustainability Plan at the First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said it is important for ministers and other key actors to expedite action on the N2.3 trillion stimulus package designed by the government to mitigate the effect of the crisis on the economy.
“We are already in Day 67 since the plan. Nothing is going to happen by magic, we have to simply do this stuff. We have 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,” he said.
He said the only way out of the current problem is to fund production, enable consumer spending so that people can go and buy things.
He said the federal government has enumerated four million farmers under the mass agriculture programme, and intends to build 300,000 homes across the country whose prices would not exceed N2 million to create jobs.
“Agriculture requiring N637.2bn funding will provide 5,000,000 jobs; the solar power project funding requirement is N152.4bn is expected to provide 250,000 jobs; the mass housing programme with a funding requirement of N217.3bn is expected to create 1,500,000 jobs; while public works funding is N52bn to provide 774,000 jobs: and N100bn is required to provide 500, 000 jobs in the SMEs,” he said.
He said if implemented properly, the plan was capable of turning the nation’s economic fortunes around.
