Economic Sustainability Plan Successful Despite Jobs Lost During Twitter Ban– FG

The Minister of State for Finance Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, has said that the thousands of jobs lost during the seven- month suspension of Twitter in Nigeria did not affect the implementation of the Economic and Sustainability Plan.

He said this on Thursday, while highlighting the challenges and successes recorded in the twelve months Economic Sustainability Plan of the Federal Government.

The plan was created in June 2020 to cushion the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the plan has now been succeeded by the National Development Plan.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, 20 per cent of Nigerians lost their jobs, according to a joint research by the United Nations Development Programme and Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics.

In June 2021, the Federal Government also made a decision to suspend the use of Twitter by Nigerians where thousands of small businesses seek patronage.

The ban is expected to affect the country’s unemployment level which is at 33.3 per cent.

Although the FG has lifted the ban on the micro blogging platform, the Minister said that the jobs lost during the ban did not frustrate the goal of creating jobs as contained in the ESP.

“It [Twitter ban] wasn’t a challenge for me and I think that the Twitter issue has been settled. I think that is something that is good, negotiations have been made, agreements have been made and we are back on stream. I think that is what is important.

“But was it because of Twitter that we were losing jobs? Nigerians were still having other ways of communicating,” he said on Channels TV.

Agba maintained that the plan has ‘technically ended’ with over two million jobs created during the 12- month period.

He said, “It has ended technically when you look at it from a twelve months perspective. In terms of funding, however, some of the programmes are still runing. The funds are still available to the agencies that have not completed.

“Those are the ones where you are getting the funds from the budget. Because with the N2.3trn, it is not the N500bn that was taken from special accounts that is in the budget.

“So, the other ones that are from financial institutions, based on negotiated rates and conditions, are still running, because they are not affected by the budget.”