Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has been speaking about the economy since he assumed office. Osinbajo who is saddled with the task of managing Nigeria’s economy as the Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC) had an interview with journalists few weeks ago after delivering the keynote address at an economic dialogue organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and here are 10 takeaways from his interview

1. Our partnership with private sector is robust

Against the backdrop that the federal government has refused to engage with the private sector in its plans for the economy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has denounced such claims saying that there has always been robust interaction between the federal government and the private sector.

During a recent interview Osinbajo said, “How do you have any kind of economic environment without active engagement with the private sector? The private sector is business, they are the economy and so it’s inevitable. In any event, we will engage with the private sector and we’ve been doing so.”

The VP said there has been engagement with the private sector, which will continue with a quarterly briefing with key players in the sector.

“You can’t make policy outside of those who those policies are meant to affect and we’ll continue to engage,” he added.

2. There is a gestation period before economic initiatives would take root

Nigeria’s have been facing a hard time with the economy. There’s “no money in circulation” is the word on the streets across the nation, but the Vice President believes that things do not change overnight.

Osinbajo said, “There’s no way that you can have a dialogue today and expect to see a tremendous change in the economic environment tomorrow.”

He added that before “economic initiatives can even take root and have effect there would be a gestation period”, implying that citizens would need to be patient before seeing the dividends of the initiatives.

3. The economy is already diversified, we just need to deepen the diversification

Nigeria is a country that is solely dependent on oil for its income, but Vice President Osinbajo feels that this assertion isn’t correct. According to Osinbajo agriculture and services are the largest contributors to GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

He said, “oil that we talk so much about, is about the third contributor in terms of size although it is the largest revenue earner, so in accurate terms the economy is actually diversified, the real question is how to deepen that diversification and enable this to be much more fruitful.”

4. Infrastructural development and agricultural growth are interwoven

The federal government in the 2016 budget voted the sum of N1.75trn for capital expenditure, and Professor Osinbajo is of the view that there is link between infrastructural improvement and agricultural growth.

He said, “For example, if you look at the agricultural sector, one of the key issues is infrastructure, rural roads, the road network generally, rail for movement of agricultural products and all that.

“So a lot of what is being spent on infrastructure obviously will benefit the agricultural sector and the reason why so much is being spent on infrastructure including irrigation is because we expect that these will benefit the agricultural sector as well, just taking the agricultural sector as one area.”

5. 27 states have met the bail out conditions

Due to the cash crunch in the country and the fall in oil prices leading to a drop in the country’s revenue many of the states sought the assistance of the federal government to “bail them out” of the challenge of paying salaries and meeting other responsibilities.

The Vice President said that for the N90bn tranche agreed to be disbursed to ailing states, 27 states or so had met the conditions of the fiscal responsibility plan and disbursements are only made when a state has met those conditions.

Osinbajo however said that he had no idea how the states spent the funds.

He said, “The N90 billion is meant to be given on a monthly basis, it’s not a one off payment and we’ll not be able to support a state that is not keeping to the fiscal responsibility plan, we’ll not be in a position to support a state that is not doing so.”

6. Lawmakers and judges going on vacation is not a major economic problem

Lawmakers are of the habit of going on prolonged vacations while earning fat salaries. Judges also engage in this vacation spree at the expense of government.

However Osinbajo believes that whether they go on vacation or not is not necessarily a major economic problem.

“The fact that the distinguished senators and honourable members of the national assembly are on holiday, or that the judiciary is on its annual vacation is not necessarily a major economic problem. I must say that perhaps sometimes it is useful in terms of rest and perhaps they’re doing so.”

7. We are having challenges meeting revenue targets

The Vice President says that the slump in oil prices has really affected the country’s ability to meet its revenue targets.

Osinbajo says, “most of that is on account of the sabotage that’s going on in the Niger Delta. I mean, I think we’ve lost close to 60 percent of expected revenues in oil, that’s a very huge drop in our revenue expectations from oil.”

He further added that “the huge drop in revenue obviously is a major drawback and that of course will impact the possibility of being able to achieve all of our objectives in an expansionary context.”

8. We are focusing on both local and foreign investments to boost the economy

Nigeria’s economy is on a gradual decline, with many financial analysts stating that if some drastic action is not taken, it would lead to a total collapse.

With this in view, Vice President Osinbajo says that the country is looking beyond Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as local investment is also necessary

He said, “We are focused on ensuring that enduring investment in the form of FDI (foreign direct investment) is coming.

“But we are also focusing on local investment, some of the investments that we’re seeing, to mention a few the Dangote Refinery, 650,000 barrel refinery, there’s the fertilizer plants, the Indorama one, the sorghum plant that is being done by Honeywell, there’s the 500-kilometre subsea pipeline that’s also a Dangote project, the gas pipeline.”

9. The use of BVN will help eliminate ghost workers in states

The menace of ghost workers has been and still remains a major drainpipe of the nation’s resources, and Vice President Osinbajo believes that for the fiscal condition of the states to be healthy and viable, the use of of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) will help curb this.

He said, “One of the conditions is that they must clean up their payroll, in other words they must use BVN (Bank verification number) or a biometric system or some electronic platform that ensures that they can get rid of ghost workers.

“So cleaning up the payroll is very important because not only does it ensure that you don’t have ghost workers but more importantly it ensures that you’re able to keep your recurrent expenditure within limits and as we found several of the states have the problem, federal government also has that problem of several ghost workers over the years and that is an important condition.”

10. Increasing Internally Generated Revenue by states is paramount 

The case in the country is that almost every state except a few wait for hand outs from the federal government to run their states. They run cap in hand to the centre to share the nation’s proceeds every month.

But with the slump in oil price and the decrease in revenue generation states have to now be their own saviours by increasing their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Osinbajo says that the Federal Government “wants to see a plan for improvement in IGR . There must be a definite, clear plan for improvement in the IGR (Internally generated revenue) of the states.”