Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy, has disclosed that the Federal Government has projected Nigeria’s economy would grow at 5.5 percent in 2015, a reduction from an earlier projection of 6.4 percent.
Okonjo-Iweala, who presented a proposed budget of N4.3 trillion to the National Assembly on Wednesday, attributed the downward review of the country’s economic growth potentials to lower oil revenues.
The N4.3 trillion budget ($23 billion) rests on a benchmark oil price of $65 a barrel, down from $77.5 in the 2014 budget, she added.
The production forecast for oil was set at 2.27 million barrels per day, down slightly from this year’s assumption of 2.38 million. The figures were in line with earlier comments by the minister this month.
Oil only accounts for about 15 percent of Nigeria’s GDP, but it makes up 75-80 percent of government revenues. Government finances have been hammered by a near halving of world oil prices since June.
“The budget seeks to protect the average Nigerian and you know that the key is that we focus on diversification of the economy,” Okonjo-Iweala told journalists outside parliament. “This budget points to the fact that this country is a non-oil country and I think we want Nigerians to begin to think of the country in that way.”
Yet efforts to diversify over the years have had mixed results, and oil dependency is seen as the Nigerian economy’s biggest systemic flaw.
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