The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday said Nigeria’s over-dependence on oil was responsible for the nation’s present economic challenges.
He stated this at a news conference held at his residence in Oro, Irepodun local government area of Kwara State.
The minister said the prevailing economic situation was not about trading blames, pointing out that “those who understand knew that this recession was bound to happen in such circumstance”.
He added that the crash in global price of oil exposed the country’s defective economic policy, with oil accounting for over 60 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Mr. Mohammed stated that the situation was further compounded by inadequate reserve to cushion the effect of oil “misfortunes” on the country.
“We have a very defective economic structure, which depended largely on a single platform of crude oil and fuel”, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the minister as saying at the briefing.
“Crude oil accounts for between eight and 12 per cent of our GDP and another 53 per cent of the GDP which we call non-oil, unfortunately also depend on the same oil.
“When the price of oil now crashes in the international market, definitely you are bound to have this kind of shock in the economy”.
He decried the citizens’ preference for imported goods to local products, saying substantial amount of the country’s foreign exchange earnings was being expended on importation of goods and services.
