President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday his administration’s focus on job creation, policy consistency and innovation stimulated a 5.1 percent growth of the economy in the second quarter of this year.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had last week announced a 5.1 percent growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of this year.
The quarterly economic growth was the country’s strongest in six years.
The President, who stated this at the inauguration of the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme at the State House, Abuja, assured that the programme would further consolidate on the success recorded by the government.
President Buhari listed some of the key drivers of economic growth and diversification in the second quarter to include telecommunications, transportation, electricity, agriculture and manufacturing.
He said: “Tuesday, June 22, 2021, I set up the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) steering committee to coordinate our work to fulfill my promise to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in ten years.
“This is building on the positive results from the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and the targeted response to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic with the Economic Sustainability Plan.
“These efforts have yielded results with Nigeria recording its biggest economic growth in six years with a GDP growth of 5 percent in the second quarter of 2021.
“The sectors that drove this growth are trade, telecommunications, transportation, electricity, agriculture and manufacturing.
“Each of these sectors showed significant improvement and thus created more jobs for our populace.
“An important part of our policies and strategies is the focus on employment and creating opportunities for our people.
“When this government was elected in 2015, we committed to increasing job opportunities for Nigerians and as part of our social investments programme we recruited 500,000 graduates into our N-power programme.”
