The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has applauded the Federal Government for exiting the country out of economic recession.
Mr David Musa, the Team Leader, USAID Bee Keeping Pollination Project, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, that the report was a welcome development.
He was reacting to the second quarter report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which indicated that Nigeria was out of recession.
Musa, also the National Technical Expert, Inter-ministerial Committee on Honey Production, Bee Health & Pollination Services, advised the government to create an open market platform especially for bee farmers across the country.
According to him, this shows that there is more potential for productivity, value addition and integration between the private and public sector is becoming more intimate.
The leader appealed to the Federal Government to open up and strengthen the ease of doing business to involve more private sector investment to sustain the recession exit.
“The report by the National Bureau of Statistics has credibility because farmers especially bee farmers are now selling more and making more profit.
“We are happy for this but the government must strengthen the ease of doing business, public policies, help the private sector to deliver wide impact to sustain the exit,’’ he said.
NAN recalls that the NBS preliminary results for the second quarter of the year, says that Nigerian economic recovery was driven principally by the performance of four main economic activities comprising oil, agriculture, manufacturing and trade.
It also showed that agriculture continued its strong and positive growth which it had maintained throughout the recession, growing by 3.01 per cent in second quarter of 2017 from 3.39 per cent in Q1 2017 and 4.53 per cent in Q2 2016