Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has said that henceforth, the federal government will focus on non-oil revenue.
While speaking with Financial Times, she said “Forget about oil, we don’t control the price of oil. That’s not where our problems lie.”
She insisted that a stricter enforcement of earnings collection from federal agencies and more diligent bookkeeping were the types of “micro” issues her ministry would focus on to lessen the effects of falling crude prices.
She added that “Because of oil, we’ve ignored everything else.”
She also announced that she commenced work by “drilling down into the details” with ministry staff members to assess how much parastatals remit to the government.
She further added that “I don’t want to say we’ve been undisciplined. But I’d say, when you have the money, you can be extravagant, flying first class instead of business [class], business instead of economy.”