Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said this in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Minister said the depletion of the Excess Crude Account to about $2.5 billion, has made the country more vulnerable than it was in the past and put the economy of the country at great risk.
“We have tried to set the country’s main parameters in a very modest way. We have made our budget at a very reasonable benchmark price for oil.
“This is to shield us and to ensure we are not subjected to any volatility there may be in the oil markets,” she added.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala predicted growth of Nigerian economy at the level of 6.75 % in the year 2014, reminded that the previous year brought the growth of 6.5 %.
She noted that increased growth has also fuelled rising inequality in the country over the years:
“In Nigeria we are growing very fast, but that growth has come with increasing inequality and lack of inclusion of certain segments of the population,” she said.
The Excess Crude Account has been depleted from $8.65 billion at the end of 2012 to $2.5 billion currently, while Nigeria’s external reserves dropped 11 per cent from last year’s peak of $48.85 billion, recorded in May.
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had on January 21, 2014, Tuesday, after its bi-monthly meeting, expressed concerns over the depleting fund, saying that the absence of such fiscal buffers “increases our reliance on portfolio flows thus, constituting the principal risk to exchange rate stability, especially with uncertainties around capital flows and oil price.”
Therefore, the CBN urged the fiscal authorities to block revenue leakages and rebuild fiscal savings needed to sustain confidence and preserve the value of the naira.
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