Nigerian govt approves N2.3trillion as COVID-19 stimulus

The Federal Executive Council, FEC, has approved the sum of N2.3trillion as COVID-19 stimulus plan.

The sum was approved to support the country’s economy in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to Ahmed, the decision was reached at a virtual meeting of the FEC presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The total package that we presented today is in the sum of N2.3 trillion, N500billion of this is a stimulus package that is already provided for in the amended in the 2020 Appropriations Act. These are funds that we have sourced from special accounts.

“We also have N1.2 trillion of these funds to be sourced as structured low-cost loans which are intervention from the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as other development partners and institutions,” she said.

She said there is also N344 billion that will be sourced from bilateral and external sources and also additional funds that they plan to source locally.

“There is a strategy that has been adopted and this whole plan is to enable us to respond to the triple problem of the low exchange rate, youth unemployment as well as negative growth which is facing us now,” she noted.

The Minister explained further that the plan has to provide support for small businesses that have suffered a severe impact on Coronavirus as a result of lockdowns.

She noted that the lockdown had severe impacts on the hotel industry, private schools, restaurants as well as the transport sector.