President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has expressed confidence that Nigeria is on the path to success with some of the policy rejig his administration has implemented and has lined up in the pipeline.
President Tinubu stated this while receiving visiting Bank of America officials at the State House, Abuja on Tuesday, 4 July, 2023, stressing that his government was committed to instituting reforms that would engender sustainable growth and development in the country.
According to Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication, and Strategy, Mr. Dele Alake, the President stated that: “We believe we are on the right track so far. We believe we need all the help we can get,” as he asked the bank’s management for support and partnership to advance mutual benefits for Nigeria and the financial institution.
President Tinubu said the governance and development challenges facing the country cannot be addressed without fiscal and institutional reforms.
“21st-century actions on climate change, finance, and innovation are intertwined. Having a good platform and believing in innovation will help in undertaking reforms and tackling the issues. This is the largest economy and democracy in Africa, and if we cannot do it, nobody will do it for us,” the President said.
Stressing that the task at hand cannot be accomplished by an individual all alone, President Tinubu charged the bank and other willing financing institutions to help the country, for instance, by partnering to ensure Nigerian gas competes favourably in the global market as a viable source of alternative revenue.
Recall that within 30 days of President Tinubu’s inauguration he announced reforms such as fuel subsidy removal, foreign exchange window unification, and other policies, which resulted in immediate macroeconomic effects like increase in the cost of transportation, goods and services which Nigerians are currently grappling with even as they expect President Tinubu to provide palliatives to cushion the adverse effects of some of these policies.
However, President Tinubu has directed the National Economic Council (NEC) – led by Vice President Kashim Shettima – to work on reliefs from the pains of these reforms for Nigerians, especially the masses.
The Shettima-led NEC is expected to come up with the goods in less than 90 days, though many Nigerians insisted that the palliatives should have been implemented simultaneously as the reforms kicked into life in order to save the poor and most vulnerable citizens from the ongoing travails directly emanating from the new policies, especially the fuel subsidy removal.
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