After Bill Gates Blow, Adeosun Laments Lack Of Adequate Funds

Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, has lamented lack of adequate revenue to support the responsibilities that the Muhammadu Buhari government is saddled with.

Adeosun said this after American billionaire and Microsoft founder, Mr Bill Gates, criticised the non-people friendly economic policy of the Federal Government.

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Gates had said on Thursday, at the National Economic Council on Investment in Human Capital, that the government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) prioritises physical capital over human capital, thereby paying little or no attention to the people’s needs.

The billionaire made the statement at the summit that held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Mrs Adeosun, during her meeting with Mr Gates at the Ministry of Finance in Abuja, said the government needs to plug leakages in some sectors of the economy to enable it to aggregate its spending.

“The general narrative is that we are not spending enough. I’m not sure that is the case, we are not spending well. There is a lot of spending in little pockets that we are not aggregating, we are not questioning the value delivery for it and therefore there is a lot of leakages in those sectors,” she said.

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“There is a value issue, there is value for money, we are a big economy, many of the vaccines are imported the ministry of health is working to resurrect local vaccine production. We are making sure that only do we have the money but spend it well.

“So primary health, basic education is at the local government level and in terms of the revenue, so we have got a huge responsibility not matched by adequate revenue.

“We need reforms. Some of it, legislative and constitutional to build institutions that can deliver these very fundamental needs for our people,” said the minister.

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