Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has stated that the Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) is working to ensure that the Nigerian economy remain stable and no jobs are lost.
Prof. Osinbajo who briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the work by the Committee said the President was concerned about the lockdown problems and is seeking more ways of providing succour.
After the meeting with the President, the Vice President was accosted by a NTA corespondent, who asked, “Your Excellency, what do you want Nigerians to know regarding your engagement with the President as the head of the high-powered Economic Sustainability Committee
The Vice President responded by saying, “I came to brief the President, as it is usual, the regular briefing that I give, sometimes I come physically as you have seen me today, other times I brief him on the phone or by video conference.
“What we are concerned about is how to ensure that the economy remains stable, that jobs are protected and if possible, more jobs are created. We are very concerned about that and the President has expressed very serious concerns about the problems that may be associated with the lockdown.
“Many of our people work for a daily wage, they have to go out to work, so we have to think in terms of how to ensure that we are able to give them some succour during the period when they are not able to work.
“Some of those issues are the issues Mr President wanted me to discuss fully with him. Of course, we have the Economic Sustainability Committee and shortly we are going to submit a full report to Mr President on our thoughts and ideas.
“Mr President asked me to meet with him, in particular, to resolve some of the pressing issues around COVID-19 and also around the economic problems that we are seeing already.