BY ALAN GREEN

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, did not mince her words: “There will be reduced revenue in the budget and it will mean cutting the size of the budget.” The comments came Monday after the collapse of oil prices linked to the coronavirus pandemic.

African nations have so far been pretty much spared by the codiv 19 pandemic. To date, only two deaths have been reported in Nigeria, the most densely-populated country in Africa. Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, also boasts the continent’s largest economy. But the so-far-low number of deaths in Nigeria, compared with 31 today in the United States which has a population barely twice that of Nigeria, makes Nigerian authorities very nevous.

After a non-scheduled meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, the finance minister said: “It is very clear that we will have to revisit crude oil benchmark price that we have of $57.”

The situation calls for savings in the record $34.6 billion spending plan the country adopted for this year, but nobody is sure, right now, where the savings will come from to adjust to the unexpected crisis.

A committee comprising the finance minister is charged with reporting to the president in the next few days about the way forward.

Nigeria, which draws 90% of its foreign exchange from oil, only in 2017 came out its worst recession in decades as a result of the last collapse of oil prices. The country is still in the middle of its struggle to boost growth, only to be met with this looming new crisis. Indeed, the International Monetary Fund in February revised down to 2 percent the country’s growth forecast.

For decades, successive Nigerian governments have vowed to diversify the economy, but the country still relies heavily on crude oil.

It’s the hope of Nigerian authorities that leading oil producers Russia and Saudi Arabia will soon get their act together to convene a meeting aimed at propping up oil prices. Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, believes that should happen pretty soon, so that Africa’s largest economy does not slip back into recession.