We Are Borrowing Wisely – Minister of Finance

Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed has stated that the present administration is prudently borrowing to address the country’s infrastructure deficit.

Ahmed, speaking at a news conference on the National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) latest report on the economy’s growth, remarked that there will be regrets if no investment returns revenue in the future.

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According to the Minister, the country’s economy would have risen faster than 5% in the second quarter of 2021 if not for security concerns that slowed agricultural growth.

She said;

“The 2021 second quarter growth reflects better economic performance compared to the same quarter last year. The same quarter last year, we had a negative growth of -6.10 percent. It is also better than the first quarter of 2021. 

“The service sector recorded a strong performance, growing by 9.27 percent this reporting quarter, representing the fastest growth in this sector since 2010.

“The second quarter growth of 2021 would have been much stronger than the 5.01 percent but for agriculture that recorded a slightly lower growth.

“A number of bottlenecks within the system including insecurity which has negatively affected the sector negatively. Also, the industrial sector slowed down to -1.3 percent.”

Ahmed also said that the non-oil sector contributed majorly to the growth witnessed in the second quarter.

She said;

“The non-oil sector recorded a growth of 7 percent which represents the fastest growth since the third quarter of 2014.”