The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, on Thursday, disclosed that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has exited Ways and Means (borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria) within one year.
Edun, while addressing a press conference on the Half Year Performance of the economy in Abuja, also said that the most critical thing for President Tinubu right now is how to bring down prices of food in the country.
The minister who also described the removal of fuel subsidy as “technical” said there were impediments to the implementation of the recent Supreme Court judgment on direct payment federation allocations to the Local Government Councils.
According to Mr. Edun, the federal government would, in the next four weeks, float a $500 million Bond to attract Diaspora Nigerians and to enable Nigerians who have funds abroad to bring their funds home for investment.
According to the minister, the federal government, with the reforms put in place, has surpassed its Half Year revenue target by 30 percent and was on its way to recording a budget deficit of about 4 percent in the 2024 Fiscal Year.
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Reacting to the concerns about the hardship in the country, he admitted that the effects of the reform policies could have created immediate difficulties for the people but that Nigerians would be better for it when the expected outcomes of the reforms became manifest.
Edun disclosed further that the president was very concerned about the welfare of ordinary Nigerians, adding that after overcoming the transparency challenges of the Cash Transfer Programme of the Social Investment initiative, the Cash Transfers had resumed with about 600, 000 beneficiaries having been recently covered.
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