The Senate has set up a joint committee to engage with the relevant ministries and experts in the field of economy and finance on the effects of coronavirus outbreak on the Nigerian economy.
The committees are: Finance, National Planning, Appropriation and Petroleum (Upstream).
This followed a matter of urgent national importance by Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, who brought the Senate’s attention to the effects of the coronavirus epidemic on the global supply chains.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, asked the committees to furnish the upper legislative chamber weekly with up-to-date information on the spillover effects of the virus on the Nigerian economy.
“As a parliament, we need to be updated to be able to take appropriate decisions,” he said.
Lawan noted that the country’s economy is largely dependent on crude, and in the 2020 appropriation act, oil price was benchmarked at 57$ per barrel.
He said the price has crashed to $31 per barrel as a result of COVID 19 outbreak, which has affected global supply.
“The difference is so significant and could affect the implementation of the budget,” he said.
Earlier, Senator Abdullahi said the budget is threatened and the country must get prepared for any eventuality.
FG taking action already
President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, constituted a 12-man Presidential Task Force for the control of the Coronavirus-19 Disease (COVID 19).
President Buhari, in a statement issued by his media aide, Garba Shehu, said this was necessary because of the current global outbreak of the novel Coronavirus and its potential of causing significant disruption to health services in the country as well as impacting negatively on the economy.
The President said the action was also in preparation for the unlikely but probable major outbreak of the disease in the country which will require a multi-sectoral inter-governmental approach as advised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) similar to that adopted for the HIV epidemic in the last two decades.
Airline stops flights to Nigeria
Turkish Airlines, today, announced the cancellation of all its flights to Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt to avoid the further spread of the coronavirus.
The airline, which flew in the current index case to Nigeria, in a statement, said the cancellation of flights to its three destinations in Nigeria was to contain the spread of Coronavirus ravaging the world.
The statement explained that the cancellations will start for flights originally scheduled to arrive Lagos on March 17, 23 and 29th, and flights for Abuja scheduled for March 13, 16th, 20th, 25th, 27th and April 1, 2020.
Flights for Port-Harcourt will not operate on March 11th, 13th, 18th and 25th.
It would be recalled that the airline had conveyed the Italian man who brought the virus to Nigeria on February 25th.
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