Yemi Kale: Nigeria’s economy still struggling, Q2 GDP figure looks flat

Yemi Kale, the statistician-general of the federation, says Nigeria’s economy has not recovered from the 2016 recession.

Speaking on a programme on Arise TV on Saturday, the director-general of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the conflicts between farmers and herdsmen dragged down the gross domestic report in the first quarter of 2018.

“I am not going to give the final figure because the work is not even completed but from the numbers I am seeing, it is looking quite flat,” he said.

“Surprisingly, but I expected the numbers should be much better it is looking very similar to the first quarter. I think the economy is still struggling out of recession and that is what the numbers are showing.

“For example, we have seen challenges in agriculture because of the clashes that are happening in different parts of the country. Obviously, if people cannot go to the farms, it is going to be a problem.

“Agriculture is not just crops; when you destroyed a farmland or even cattle rearing is also part of agriculture, so the back and forth are affecting both crop production and livestock and agriculture is the biggest part of our GDP and that is slowing down the economy.”

However, Kale said the projection of the International Monetary Fund that the economy will grow by 2.1% by the end of 2018 is achievable.

Commenting on the recent Liveability ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Kale said it is unfair for Lagos to have gotten such ranking.

According to the NBS DG, rankings like that use certain indicators like education and health which are generally poor in Nigeria.