By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
The federal government said yesterday that the oil and gas sector is responsible for the current poor economic performance, which has kept the country in recession.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, who disclosed this to State House correspondent at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, said government, was confident that the performance of the economy would be better in the fourth quarter.
He said: “We looked at the recent numbers which were released on Monday by the NBS. As you know, from these numbers, the economy is still in recession.
“The performance in the third quarter is slightly worse than the second quarter and this was attributable to the performance of the oil sector which performed worse in the third quarter than the second quarter and that was for reasons you all know.
“However, the good news is that the non-oil sector is improving in the direction that is most encouraging to the government. Agriculture continues to growth at 12.5 percent, solid minerals continue to grow at seven percent. We are encouraged by the direction that the non-oil sector is moving.
Also speaking, Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr. Chris Ngige said the council has approved the purchase of vehicles worth N464 million for the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).
He said the vehicles include 50 Pick-up vans to be purchased from Innoson Motors in Nnewi and 27 Peugeot 301 cars to be procured from Peugeot Automobile Nigeria in Kaduna.