Finance Minister Adeosun Unveils Top Priority For Nigeria’s Economy

Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, has disclosed that raising the country’s non-oil revenue is her top priority. “Forget about oil we don’t control the price of oil. That’s not where our problems lie,” Ms Adeosun said according to Financial Times. “Because of oil, we’ve ignored everything else,” she said.

With a mindset of “we have oil” Abuja had practically given up collecting the right amounts from other state bodies, she explained, rattling off a list of federal agencies she says had habitually under-reported their revenues.

She added that she had already begun “drilling down into the details” with ministry staff to assess how much “parastatals” — state-run or affiliated agencies — remit to the government.

She also praised the lack of pomp and circumstance at the ministerial swearing in ceremony, a sharp contrast to state ceremonies of past governments. “The programme was a piece of paper, that’s it,” she said.

This isn’t the first time there’ll be calls for the diversification of the country’s economy, ex Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also mentioned it.