Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the Federal Government’s COVID-19 stimulus package under the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) has been helpful.

Osinbajo’ spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Monday, said the vice president chaired a virtual meeting of the Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) measuring implementation of the plan.

The vice president said that the COVID-19 stimulus package helped the Nigerian economy to avoid collapse as feared.

According to the vice president over two million jobs have been created and saved with the implementation of ESP.

“Although the target of N2.3 trillion estimated to be spent under the plan has not been achieved just as yet, the Federal Government appropriation part of that total being N500 billion has been completely released by the end of May.

“This makes it possible to attain several objectives of the ESP directly supporting a few million Nigerians.

“While a total of 2,100,021 jobs have been saved and created altogether, the breakdown of the figures indicate that 1.3 million jobs have been retained through interventions in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) space, including the Payroll Support.

“ The 774,000 jobs from the Public Works Programme and 26,021 Jobs from construction /rehabilitation projects across the country were among those freshly created.

Osinbajo said that the 100 per cent release of funds appropriated in the budget for the programme was commendable.

He urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to expedite action on the release of funding components of the ESP.

NAN