Nigerian president admits financial meltdown impact on economy

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

By Qiu Jun

LAGOS, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian President Umaru
Yar'Adua on Wednesday admitted that the impact of the global financial meltdown
had already been noticeable in Nigeria and directed ministers to deliver visible
measures to curb the damage in 2009.

The president stated this in Abuja while addressing
the ministers at the first Federal Executive Council meeting in 2009.

Declining national revenue, sharp fall in the value
of shares, and the continuing crash of the naira against foreign currencies,
according to the president, are some of the major indicators that the global
crisis is already affecting Nigeria.

The president said it was time to rise up to the
global challenge and to deliver on his administration's promises, particularly
as 2009 marked the mid-point in the life of his administration.

According to him, the government needed to double its
efforts in the face of the global financial meltdown, noting that no time could
be more challenging for the government than now.

"We can feel the impact from falling oil prices, the
declining exchange rate of the naira and the cascading prices of shares at the
capital market," he was quoted as saying by the Punch newspaper on Thursday.

"We are thus starting the year amidst persistent push
and pull of both local and global realities," he added.

Yar'Adua's statement actually set a basic tune for
Nigerian economy, flagging off emergence alarm over the African most populated
country's growth in 2009.

It is also a reverse of his central bank governor's
optimistic view on global financial crisis for the country.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),
Chukwuma Soludo had in late 2008 said that Nigeria was insulated from the global
financial meltdown, arguing that enough idle capital, satisfying economic growth
rate and growing agriculture could considerable cushion impacts on Nigerian
economy.

Nigeria is one of Africa's biggest oil producers. Oil
money takes critical part in its national economy.

According to local media reports, more than 95
percent of the country's export value comes from crude export, while more than
80 percent of federal government's revenue is from oil sector.