Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday said the coronavirus pandemic had dwindled the country’s revenue and foreign exchange earnings.
“For the government, it has been a particularly trying time,” Osinajo said while representing President Muhammadu Buhari at the start of the first-year Ministerial performance review retreat holding in Abuja.
“As a result of the poor fortunes of the oil sector, our revenues and foreign exchange earnings have fallen drastically. Our revenues have fallen by almost 60 percent,” he said.
Osinbajo said despite the slump, the Federal Government had to sustain expenditures, “especially on salaries and capital projects, in order to keep the economy going.”
He said the government adopted a N2.3 trillion economic sustainability plan to mitigate the effect of the economic slowdown.
The plan, which consists of fiscal, monetary, and sectoral measures, is expected “to enhance local production, support businesses, retain and create jobs and provide succor to Nigerians, especially the most vulnerable.”
“But we have also had to make some difficult decisions to stop unsustainable practices that were weighing the economy down,” he said.