Q: Why has the Federal Government decided to shut out the private sector from economic recovery plans?
Ans: I won’t agree with you that the private sector was shut out. If you look at the presentation of the President to the National Assembly when budget 2016 was handed to them, working with the private sector was one of the goals. People keep saying, we don’t know the economic direction, maybe it was because they were not listening. When the budget was presented last year, the economic direction was also unfolded and part of it was that the country would curb importation, we would work with the private sector, and we would stimulate the economy through capital projects by releasing funds. These last five months, do you know how much has been released for capital projects? About N800 billion. That is more than the entire budget of some previous years. That shows you that the direction unfolded when the budget was presented to the National Assembly is being followed. There is an economic blueprint and the government is following it to the letter.
