Kale: Nigeria Will Exit Recession Next Year Obinna Chimawithagencyreport Barring further economic upheavals or exogenous shocks, the Nigerian economy is expected to exit the recession in 2018, the Statistician General of the
Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale has said. His forecast on the economy is more conservative than that of other watchers of the economy, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin
Emefiele, Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matter, Dr. Yemi Dipeolu, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which have forecast that the Nigerian economy will exit the recession this year.
In an interview with Economic Confidential in Abuja, Dr. Kale said that “if oil prices do not collapse and the Niger Delta remains stable, by 2018 we would recover”. On the performance of the Nigerian economy in the past
one year, he added: “It was an extremely difficult period and we all felt it. But I will say that most of the indicators suggest that we are coming out of it. “We have not come out of it yet, but the worst has
already happened and it’s a slow process of recovery. There is also what we call technical recovery, different from the recovery Nigerians would prefer. Continued on page 10
PDP Crisis: Sheriff, Makarfi Factions Endorse Governors’ Position… Page 10 Monday 19 June, 2017 Vol 22. No 8096. Price: N250
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2017 Budget: Osinbajo’s Comments Threaten Executive, N’Assembly Virement Deal Damilola Oyedele in Abuja There are indications that the agreement brokered by the executive and National Assembly, paving the way for a virement request as a
pre-condition for the assent of the 2017 budget, may be in jeopardy due to the comments made by acting President Yemi Osinbajo last week. Osinbajo had during the
budget’s assent last Monday disclosed that the executive arm of government and legislature had agreed to a virement request to reinstate several budgetary proposals altered in the Appropriation
Bill by the National Assembly. Some of the key projects affected by the National Assembly’s alterations included allocations to the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, the Mambilla power project,
railway projects, and the Second Niger Bridge, among others. According to sources in the presidency, the legislature shaved off an estimated N500 billion from such critical
infrastructure projects and inserted 4,000 new projects that were never proposed by the executive in the 2017 budget. Continued on page 10
Southern Leaders Unite, Insist on Restructuring Want concrete steps taken on Confab report before Oct 1 Enough of bloodshed, Ag. President tells S’East traditional rulers DSS warns agitators, ethnic jingoists Omololu Ogunmade and Paul Obi in Abuja Shola Oyeyipo in Lagos Following the refusal of the relevant security agencies to apprehend some Northern youths under the auspices of the Arewa Youths’ Consultative Forum (AYCF) which recently issued a quit notice to Nigerians of Southeastern extraction, leaders in the South have resolved to work together to protect the interest of the region. They also resolved to pursue the restructuring of the country and called for concrete steps to
be taken on the implementation of the 2014 National Conference report before October 1, 2017 Rising from a meeting that lasted for about four hours yesterday, leaders of the three geopolitical zones in the region – the South-west, South-east and South-south – declared in a communiqué that they were forging a common front to pursue the interest of the region, noting that rather than reduce the issue to the North and the South-east, it was an issue of the entire Southern and Northern Nigeria. Continued on page 57
PETRALON, JULIUS BERGER TO COLLABORATE…
L-R: Financial Controller, Petralon Energy, Mrs. Adeola Akinrinmade; Founder and CEO, Petralon Energy, Mr. Ahonsi Unuigbe; Chairman, Petralon Energy and Julius Berger Plc, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu; and Managing Director, Julius Berger Plc, Mr. Wolfgang Goetsch, during the signing of a strategic partnership and joint investment agreement between Petralon Energy and Julius Berger Plc for the acquisition and development of Nigerian oil fields, held in Abuja… recently julius atoi