Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has stated in her interview to one Abuja's radio station that the federal government "may not be able to pay workers' salary by October," should the national assembly fails to amend the content of the 2013 appropriation budget.
Nigeria's Minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy said thus: "It come to a point where some amendment has to be made and that's why Mr president sent this amendment to the national assembly. I think we can continue a little longer and at some point we need the amendment to pass, because come September or October, we may not be able to pay salary.
"We have been talking with various committees and the leadership in a collegial way trying to see how we can fix this problem. But one specific example that is critical is the salary and between now and October, we
will need about N32 billion."
Speaking on the current state of Nigerian economy, the Minister tried to refute the reports that the country is broke, stating that Nigeria's economy is "strong but currently experiencing some cash flow hiccups".
"We have been very open about it. I always believe in telling Nigerians about what the situation is all about with regards to the budget, with regards to the economy. Nigerian economy is fundamentally strong but within a strong economy, you can experience a cash flow problem. Outside agents regard us as fundamentally strong. Now the issue is we are experiencing short term problem," she disclosed.
It would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan has re-submitted the 2013 budget to the national assembly for amendment with a reported slashing of about N56 billion to the earlier rejected budget amount by House of representatives last week.
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