Nigeria’s President, Major General, Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), says the country is facing fiscal challenges despite five per cent economic growth in the country in the second quarter of 2021.

He blamed the economic challenges still faced by Nigerians on coronavirus pandemic, high population, and youth agitations in the country.

The president said this during a meeting with officials of the Nigeria Medical Association at the State House, on Friday, according to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

The statement was titled, ‘Embarking on industrial action at this time when Nigerians need you most is not the best action to take, says president Buhari to doctors’.

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According to the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday, August 26, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 5.01 per cent, year-on-year, in the second quarter of 2021.

The president had said Nigeria’s economy recorded five per cent growth in the second quarter of 2021, which is the highest in six years due to focus on job creation, consistency in policy and innovation.

He also listed some of the key drivers of economic growth and diversification in the second quarter to include telecommunications, transportation, electricity, agriculture, and manufacturing.

Addressing the doctors on Friday, Buhari noted that Nigeria’s source of revenue over many years was dwindling, with a rising population.

“The global economy has been seriously affected by the pandemic, and despite recent pleasing news of more than five per cent economic growth of Nigeria in the last quarter, we are still having fiscal challenges to deal with, like most other countries.

“The source of revenue that Nigeria has depended on for so long experienced global decline, our population is rising fast and the tension arising from both, is fuelling agitation among our youth. Organizations like the NMA could play a very useful moderating role in society,’’ the president said.