The administration of President Bola Tinubu will be two years old on May 29, 2025. The focus today is a critical assessment of the success or otherwise of the economic agenda of the administration.
President Tinubu didn’t leave anyone in doubt as to the clear focus of his economic agenda from day. At the inauguration ground in Eagle Square in Abuja, he made the now famous and impactful statement of “fuel subsidy is gone”. Fuel subsidy had been a monster the successive governments were afraid to tackle, perhaps for fear of its political ramifications, especially the reaction of the organised labour.
President Tinubu made it abundantly clear that tough decisions have to be made to prevent the collapse of the nation’s economy. The removal of fuel subsidy brought with it inflationary consequences, resulting in the increase in the prices of virtually all goods and services.
To mitigate the negative impact, the President engineered the distribution of palliatives to the most vulnerable in society to cushion the negative effects of the end to the subsidy regime which lasted many decades.
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President Tinubu also made another major economic decision to float the naira or merge the exchange rates (official and parallel markets) in order for the national currency to find its real value.
At every occasion, the President explained that what Nigerians were experiencing was temporary and that with time, they will enjoy the positive impact of his economic reforms. In less than two years, Nigerians have begun experiencing the positive impact of the reforms.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently confirmed that Nigeria has fully repaid the $3.4 billion financial support it received under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to cushion the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IMF’s Resident Representative for Nigeria, Christian Ebeke, said the repayment was completed on April 30, 2025. He clarified that Nigeria would however continue to make annual payments of approximately $30 million in SDR-related charges over the next few years.
This is good news for Nigeria because the repayment would boost Nigeria’s international credit rating and strengthen the naira. Nigeria’s overall Debt Stock, both external and domestic, of the Federal Government, the 36 states and FCT, went down from $108.2 billion to $94 billion as of December 31, 2024.
The administration of President Tinubu has also cleared all the verified foreign exchange backlog of about $7 billion, which made some foreign airlines to threaten to exit the country.
Despite dutifully paying off the backlog and reducing Nigeria’s total debt stock through consistent payments to creditors, the country’s gross external reserves still grew to approximately $38.1 billion. This is significantly higher than the $33 billion recorded in 2023.
Nigeria achieved a Balance of Payments surplus of $6.83 billion in 2024. This represents a significant turnaround from deficits of $3.34 billion in 2023 and $3.32 billion in 2022, reflecting stronger trade performance and increased investors’ confidence in Nigeria’s economy.
In the last two years, the nation’s non-oil exports increased by 24.6 percent to $7.46 billion, while gas exports surged by 48.3 percent to $8.66 billion, boosting Nigeria’s overall trade surplus. Portfolio investment inflows, which measure investors’ confidence in a country, rose by 105 percent to $13.35 billion in 2024.
The renewed investors’ confidence in Nigeria is largely driven by President Tinubu’s bold macroeconomic reforms. The economic reforms so far carried out by the President have significantly improved the revenues of the states. The states and FCT now receive more money monthly from the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). The states are now in a financial position to execute projects that have direct impact on the lives of the people, and also pay the new minimum wage of N70,000.
The Federal Government share from FAAC is being used to fund gigantic road projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway. In fact, 74 road projects are going on simultaneously across 24 states of the Federation.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deserves praise for staying the course of his economic reforms despite the negative criticisms from naysayers.
He deserves our collective support as he strives to build our present and future.
. Osikhekha is a Public Affairs Analyst.
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