The Statistician-General of the Federation, Yemi Kale, has revealed why the nation’s economy is yet to recover from the 2016 recession.
Kale, who is also Chief Executive Officer of the National Bureau of Statistics, said the conflicts between farmers and herdsmen had dragged down the Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter of 2018.
According to a report on Sunday by an online news portal, The Cable, the statistician-general spoke on Arise TV on Saturday, lamenting the performance of the nation’s economy in the second quarter of the year.
He said, “I am not going to give the final figures because the work is not even completed but from the numbers I am seeing, it is looking quite flat.
“Surprisingly, but I expected the numbers should be much better; it is looking very similar to the first quarter. I think the economy is still struggling out of recession and that is what the numbers are showing. For example, we have seen challenges in agriculture because of the clashes that are happening in different parts of the country. Obviously, if people cannot go to the farms; it is going to be a problem.
“Agriculture is not just crops; when you destroyed a farmland or even cattle rearing is also part of agriculture, so the back and forth are affecting both crop production and livestock and agriculture is the biggest part of our GDP and that is slowing down the economy.”
Kale, however, said the projection of the International Monetary Fund that the economy would grow by 2.1 per cent by the end of 2018 was achievable.
He also commented on the recent liveability ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, saying it was unfair for Lagos to have got such ranking.
The rankings like that use certain indicators such as education and health, which are generally poor in Nigeria, according to him.
