BMO lauds Buhari on improved GDP figures

Nigeria’s latest GDP figures has again shown that the Buhari administration’s economic diversification programme remains on course and is successful.

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) described the figures as encouraging and lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for “thinking outside the box”.

In a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, BMO said that the 3.11 per cent economic growth recorded in Q1 2022 showed that the non-oil sector has continued to be the drivers of the Nigerian economy on President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch.

“We want to put it on record that the non-oil sector contributed 93.37 per cent to the nation’s GDP while the oil sector accounted for 6.63 per cent of the GDP in the first quarter of this year.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the sectors that accounted for the positive GDP growth are Information and Communication, Trade, Financial and Insurance, Agriculture, and Manufacturing.

“So if anyone is still in doubt over the Buhari administration’s economic diversification programme, those numbers alone, as well as the contributing sectors, should open their eyes to the good things happening in the country.

“We see it as a culmination of the vow by President Muhammadu Buhari to gradually wean the country off oil, and this the administration has been doing even before the global disruption caused by COVID-19,” the group added.

BMO also noted that the good performance of the non-oil sector in the last six quarters is not by chance.

“Let it be known that since the early days of his administration, the President had shown great foresight by coming up with the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) which went a long way to helping the country withstand the shocka and after-effects of the global shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the greater part of 2021.

“That initiative led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as well as the various interventions of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), including those targeting both big and small businesses were instrumental in jumpstarting the economy after the Covid-induced global recession.

“So the upward rise in the GDP numbers is a positive sign that the economic policies of the Buhari administration are working, and soon Nigerians will start reaping the benefits,” it said.

The group reaffirmed its stance that President Buhari would leave the country better than he met it on assuming office in 2015.