Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, presided over the meeting of the Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) set up to address the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the meeting were Ministers of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, and Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola. Others are the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Farouq, and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva.
Also in the committee are the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Mele Kyari, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele. The Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babatunde Lawal is the secretary of the committee. President Muhammadu Buhari had on March 30, set up the committee to develop a clear economic sustainability plan that would run til 2023.
The meeting is the fourth for the committee after its inauguration by the vice president on April 2. The committee was tasked with identifying fiscal and monetary measures to enhance oil and non-oil revenues in order to fund the plan, develop a stimulus package and come up with measures to create more jobs while keeping existing ones. The final report of the committee will be submitted to the President. The global economy is expected to go into recession in 2020 while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that Nigeria will go into recession to a level of negative 3.4 per cent. The ESC, however, said that with the plans it had drawn, Nigeria would be able to return to positive growth by 2021. Buhari had approved an initial economic stimulus package of N500 billion.
