by Roqeebah O.

Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance did something, which not many Nigerian political office holders engage in. She hosted a Facebook Live session where she answered questions from concerned Nigerians about the economy and the work of the Ministry.

By that standard (of uncommonness) alone, what the Minister did was very admirable. Especially for a woman who has not had the best of coverage from the Nigerian media and Twitter populace.

The Minister not only took questions but also explained what the Nigerian government has done so far to make life easy for Nigerians regardless of what many would think based on their realities.

She spoke about diversification of the economy a lot; except that it was in a more broken down fashion where she explained (as always) that the current administration has departed from the “old ways” that brought us into the recession in the first place.

[Read also: “Blame Jonathan, Not Buhari for Nigeria’s economic woes”]

She listed the efforts already made by the Buhari administration like the coastal railway which will hopefully cut short transportation costs for Nigerian manufacturers and traders as well as the release of a trillion Naira for capital into the economy.

She said that to keep up the pace with such capital releases, Nigeria will need to borrow funds externally as they have with $1.5 billion Eurobonds. At this point, she went on to explain that Nigeria has not borrowed internationally since 2013 and that they ensured that all the monies have been sought as cheaply as possible and that they are long term such that the investments made into the economy in terms of infrastructure with these funds will have yielded fruits before we have to start to pay back.

On the whistleblower policy, Minister Adeosun made sure to let us know that the initiative was the Ministry of Finance’s originally and that it was adopted on a large scale by the Presidency when they saw the work they’d done with it. She added that the policy is not just so government monies stolen can be recovered, but also to serve as deterrent to anyone planning to steal as they have to work hard to conceal their deeds.

The Establishment of the Development Bank of Nigeria is another one, according to the Minister. The Bank she says will serve to provide Microfinance Banks with funds to loan MSME’s at approved lending rates.

Interesting to note is the Efficiency Unit which the Minister mentioned is dedicated to cutting excessive spending across government agencies by ensuring discounted flight rates and “cutting the amount officials can spend on tea breaks”! Well, surely that’s not all they do but those are the examples she gave.

Oh! Apparently it’s not all bad stuff that was inherited from the Jonathan administration. The Minister mentioned the YOUWIN competition that was a huge hit during the past administration. However, it has been revamped and made into a program intended to immerse the youth and small business owners in skill acquisition as opposed to just giving grants to people who participate in government funded competitions to the tune of up to 10 million for individuals sometimes.

She said that they have now started to educate these youngsters on the pages of newspapers (6 of them). Yes, young people read Newspapers. They are not online 24/7 watching Facebook Live and on Twitter reading threads. RME.

Watch the full video below: