The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, has said the Nigerian economy now runs on revenue from the non-oil sector as oil no longer contributes to the government’s coffers.
The minister was speaking at the 2022 Africa Statistics Day in Abuja. He said, “The contribution to national revenue, especially in 2022, is practically zero, we are running this economy based on the non-oil sector.”
He said with agriculture contributing about 25 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and oil contributing 6 per cent, the economy is not mono-dependent, as activities in the services sector have grown.
The minister also said it is not enough to wish for the dollar to crash to one naira when the country is not producing dollars.
“If we are not producing that which we sell to get dollars, the issue of demand and supply will come in and the exchange rate will continue to be high.”
The Statistician-General of the Federation and CEO of the National Bureau of Statistics, Adeyemi Adeniran, said producing and using the right agriculture statistics to inform policies and interventions will help boost output, improve nutrition, and food security in Africa.
He said the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, which has greatly disrupted supply chains across the world, has further highlighted the need for Africa to become much more food secure, in terms of growing and producing the food consumed.
