Senate hails rebound, moves to tackle unemployment, hardship

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Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi

The Senate has expressed joy over the exit of Nigeria from recession in the second quarter of 2017. Consequently, it pledged to work with the executive arm of government to reduce unemployment and high cost of living.

Its spokesman, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said he endorsed the report credited to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) authenticating the new development.

He also said that the rising unemployment in the country was of concern to the National Assembly, as the spiralling cost of food items and basic services affects millions of households nationwide.

Against this backdrop, Abdullahi pledged that the federal lawmakers would continue to legislate on issues that promote access to credit for small business owners and enact laws that could open up more sectors to allow for a healthy competition that would result in lower prices of basic necessities.

The Senate was excited that after five consecutive quarters of contraction, the Nigerian economy grew by 0.55 per cent in the second quarter of 2017.Abdullahi said the improved performance of trade, manufacturing, agriculture and oil sectors was an indication that, with carefully aligned policy and legislative interventions, the nation’s economy could outgrow forecasts.

His words: “We are also happy to note that many of the economic recommendations, specifically in the areas of retooling our agriculture and trade policies, were adopted. This shows that the ‘all hands on deck’ approach was necessary from both arms of government.”

The Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, yesterday released the Quarterly National Accounts (QNA) report where he clarified that QNA was an integrated system of microeconomics accounts designed to describe the entire system of production in a nation on a quarterly basis. They provide a picture of the current economic status of the economy in a more timely and frequent manner than the annual national accounts (ANA).According to QNA provides reasonably detailed economic situations to help government assess, analyse and monitor growth on a regular basis.