The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on Friday admonished Nigerians not to be agitated by the descent of the economy into recession, assuring that the country will overcome the adversity.
Her admonition came on a day the three tiers of government received a significant boost in their monthly receipts from the Federation Account for the month of June.
Briefing journalists after plenary of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) in Abuja, Adeosun said Nigerians should rest assured that in spite of the fact that the economy has entered into recession after two successive quarters of negative growth, measures being put in place would see the country come out of it.
She stated that with fiscal discipline, increased revenue collection and improvement in infrastructure, recession would be a thing of the past, adding that the federal government was already pursuing those objectives.
According to her, what should agitate Nigerians was not whether or not the economy was in recession, but whether it would pull through.
She attributed the increase allocation, the highest in 12 months to improved collections by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Customs Service and an Exchange Gain of over N79 billion.
Giving further breakdown, the minister said the N559.032 billion allocation includes Value Added Tax (VAT) of NN67.401 billion, an improvement over the sum of N65.116 billion.
The minister, who commended the revenue generating agencies for the drive which culminated in the increased revenue, noted that the development underscored the fact that the various measures out in place by the government were beginning to yield dividends.
Adeosun also disclosed that the Excess Crude Account (ECA) increased from $2.59 billion in May to $3.09 billion in June.
