Mr Filippo Amato, Counsellor, Head of Trade and Economics Section, has advised the Federal Government to sustain efforts to diversify exports of non-oil products to achieve economic growth.
Amato, who is also a delegation of the EU to Nigeria and ECOWAS, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday, 25 July 2017
He said the Federal Government should also source for new markets for the country’s liquefied natural gas to benefit from the growth predicted by African Development for the continent.
As regards oil and gas, the government has already begun taking steps in the right direction by the successful mediation efforts in the Niger Delta which have led to the restoration of lost production volumes, he said.
Amato said Nigeria had been successful in developing new export markets following the significant decline in exports to the U.S.
All the efforts by the Federal Government need to be sustained in order to achieve the target, he said.
The bank in its annual report painted a bright picture for Africa, predicting an economic growth of 3.4 per cent within the year and 4.3 per cent in 2018 after the slowdown of 2016.
The projection is based on the assumption that as commodity prices recover, the world economy will be strengthened and domestic macroeconomic reforms are entrenched.
The bank attributed the negative growth of the past year to lower commodity prices. (NAN)
FNO/JCE