 Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And good afternoon ladies and gentlemen It just for full disclosure Because you would wonder why should forgive me such a generous introduction You know, not only did she was succeed me as attorney general In Lagos state. I also suspect that he has You know some political ambitions. He might also want to succeed me as vice president here I think Thank you very much. I'm pleased to participate in this Special session on Nigeria and I must again thank the Commonwealth Enterprise An Investment Council for the very kind invitation to be here and to join you at this webinar There is never a good time For a pandemic I But there can be a terribly wrong time and that's how it seemed three months ago as COVID-19 began to ravage January 2020 all prices approached $70 a barrel for the first time since the crash of 2015 2016 when we saw all prices At about sub $30 a barrel Just at the end of 2019 Growth for us was about 2.55 percent modest, but from where we were coming we were It was quite exciting and we're looking at an upward trajectory and the 3% was already well in sight Economic recovery and growth plan was beginning to make sense and Work was going on in major rail road and bridge projects along the main Trade routes the the main national trade corridors Again, you know the EPC arrangements on our liquefied natural gas LNG train 7 Which we expect to unlock about 30 percent more LNG output had commenced So so it seemed that the Sun was beginning to shine quite brightly after the years of the session and its immediate aftermath Then came COVID-19 Possibly the worst economic crisis the world has seen before us in Nigeria it was also not just the worst crisis we've seen but You know It was also a perfect storm for all prices Russia and Saudi Arabia chose that very moment for a price war and of course all prices crashed at some point to Below $12 a barrel and then the inevitable lockdowns resulting in closure of businesses Huge informal economy all but crashed and government revenues fell to Somewhere between 40 and 50 percent But I must say that the civil alignings were perhaps bolder even in those dark clouds The president decided that we could seize the opportunity to reset our economy in a Way that may have been impossible have there not been a worldwide economic crash I Was asked to chair an interministerial team to develop our economics of sustainability plan a plan Which we hope will in the next 12 months or so Avoid a deep and prolonged recession by supporting businesses and health households But perhaps more importantly addressing long-term structural vulnerabilities So taking into account the size of our economy and of course our fiscal limitations at this time You know for those familiar with our economy our fiscal buffers are quite small So we put together a stimulus package of about 2.3 trillion naira Which is just about 1.5 percent of our of our national income If other factors like the price of oil and the length of the COVID-19 pandemic do not worsen These interventions could Ameliorate the situation with a mild recession and we expect that something in the order of about Minus point five nine percent Might be our growth projections, especially as we're going to 2021 We've taken the opportunity of this of the crisis to remove petrol subsidies Which was an important albatross around our necks And also to insist that power distribution companies must engage with customers to ensure that any New tariffs are based only on improved power supply So we're talking of service reflective tariffs The central bank of Nigeria is also committing to moving to a unified exchange rate In order to improve certainty in trade and investment So in addition to using Fiscal and monetary measures to stimulate the economy our main objectives are to retain and create jobs and to assist vulnerable people to support businesses and undertake infrastructural investments and I was happy to see from the the research that jobs and Retaining jobs and creating more opportunities Tops Nigerians priorities when it comes to What they believe the covered response should be like Some key interventions include Jobs for food which is an agricultural program aimed at expanding the acreage under cultivation across the country to create We hope hundreds of thousands of jobs and we also intend to guarantee uptake by processors aggregators and also to some extent by government We also have a jobs through homes Program, which is a program to provide jobs and increase our national housing stock at the same time by a massive social housing program Where we intend to engage young professionals and artisans in small who are involved at the moment in small businesses In in building and also using local products such as cements doors tiles windows and paint We also have a solar home systems program, which really is Where we intend to engage private solar power companies Who will be able to access cheap loans to provide? Modular solar powered units to about five million households, which will roughly translate to about 25 million Persons of 25 million people in rural or underserved areas at the moment we have in you know deficit of almost 40 million homes without power so we expect that this will be a major Dent in that deficit The skill required means that will be encouraging suppliers to establish productive facilities in the country We expect to we expect to be able to attract Solar companies to establish manufacturing and assembly plants in Nigeria So supporting small businesses also is a priority and I'm sure that the honorable minister of Trade industry and investment in his comments will probably take Some more time to talk about that We're also looking at a future of jobs program in technology Taking to account the new normals and our creative and significant youth population and the need to prepare our economy To become an outsourcing hub providing services across the whole gamut of possible technology Engagements including animation software engineering and data analysis These are areas where we've invested considerably already and we intend to do a bit more and we hope that this That some of our some of the efforts were putting into The response will address these areas even more pointed So to be sure improving health outcomes is of course very much a part of the package to meet the immediate challenge with Doug deep to find Resources to respond to the pandemic Who built of course more isolation centers more laboratories? incentivizing medical personnel buying test kits PPEs as well as you know several other Equipment medical equipment We've increased the number of modular laboratories that can handle COVID-19 samples from about five at the onset of the pandemic You're about 39 today The crisis has also revealed, you know a significantly the vulnerability of our health sector So as part of the economic stabilization plan We're also looking at universal health coverage about improving the work We're doing in universal health insurance With a view to universal health public coverage by combination of public finance and mandatory health insurance So while we're bullish on Lookup reduction we remain committed to engaging our traditional and trading partners This is in recognition of the potential contribution of trade of course to growth The African continent of free trade area is of course pertinent for us But so certainly he's also trade with our Commonwealth partners including the United Kingdom This was evident in Nigeria's participation in the UK Africa investment forum which was held earlier this year and it's particularly noteworthy that Intra Commonwealth trade is projected to rise from an estimated one trillion dollars this year to 2.75 trillion dollars by 2030 and we certainly intend to be a major part of that growth it's not news of course that The pandemic has distorted international trade especially the disruptions in global value chains export bonds and protectionist policies, etc But on our part we remain committed to the multilateral trade system And we'll ensure that our economy as much as possible is not subjected to unfair trade practices Ultimately, we see Nigeria as Africa's gateway economy as the continent's most populous Nation and its largest economy. We think that we can leverage population geographical location Which is right in the middle of the far-flung Commonwealth countries In order to catalyze intra Commonwealth trade investments are fast-growing and We're looking especially at investments in infrastructure power rail roads and of course, we're looking at also Several other areas where especially technology where we think that we can benefit from the We can benefit from other Commonwealth countries Once again, I thank the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council for convening this important discussion especially now when we certainly See a greater need for Social economic engagements with our Commonwealth partners and we're Set ready to continue these engagements and we look forward to not just What this particular session will bring but all our future cooperation. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you Thank you so much for the time I know how busy you are, you know, if you haven't got enough issues to deal with you've been extremely generous with your time and Filling us in on on the detail. I'm glad you spoke about power because one of the main issues for many of our members in Nigeria is the The breakdown of the communication of power Which obviously