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Nigerians should brace for tougher economic times ahead,
the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said as
crude oil prices slipped to a four year low on Wednesday.
New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) December WTI oil
futures sold at $75.20 per barrel on Wednesday, down
$1.98, from $74.96 per barrel the previous day, the lowest
level for a most-active contract since September 2010.
Though the price of sweet crude, the blend of oil export
from Nigeria, rose marginally at the close of trading on
Wednesday to $76.96 per barrel, it has already crashed
below the $79 per barrel benchmark approved in the 2014
Appropriation Act, concerns are mounting that tough times
are indeed ahead.
The Federal Government had attributed the declining
revenues to the fall in prices at the international oil
market.
After drawing from the ECA, Minister of State for Finance,
Bashir Yuguda, said the balance in the account had
dropped further from $4.1 billion to about $1.34 billion at
the moment.
But Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said in Lagos on Tuesday that the
economic indicators show there are tougher times ahead.
According to her, Nigeria would begin to feel the impact of
the dropping oil prices at the international oil market,
which commenced since the first half of the year.
“The country must brace up for tougher times ahead”, she
said. “We need to review our expenditures and build
economic buffers through budgets that would be based on
modest oil prices.”
She underlined the importance of a sound macro-
economic management to Nigeria at this time, particularly
the need to plug all revenue leakages.
“We have not yet seen the impact of the falling oil prices
in Nigeria. It will start this month. We have to drive the
non-oil revenue base to be able to weather the storm that
is coming,” the Minister said.