Tinubu eyes reforms consolidation to drive growth

President Bola Tinubu is planning to consolidate some of his reforms to drive Nigeria’s growth.

Speaking during his first presidential media chat on Monday, the president said he does not regret some of his recent reforms, particularly the petrol subsidy removal, as it is targeted at recalibrating the economy and raising the citizens’ standard of living.

“Nigeria was spending its future and was not investing,” he said.

Tinubu said Nigeria was simply spending the fortunes of its future generations pre-susbidy and was not investing in things that mattered.

“We were just deceiving ourselves. That reform was necessary. Why should you have expenditures that we don’t have revenue for?” he asked.

He said there was no way “you give out fuel and allow all the entire neighbouring countries as Father Christmas. I don’t have regret whatsoever removing the subsidy. It is necessary.”

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said Nigeria spent $74.39 billion on petrol subsidies between 2005 and 2021. Under former President Muhammadu Buhari alone, the nation burnt N7.3 trillion on petrol subsidies.

When President Tinubu came to power on May 29, 2023, he refused to continue with the opaque system and immediately announced, on the day of his inauguration, that “subsidy is gone,” heralding an era of petrol market deregulation.

Petrol subsidy did not go immediately as he had announced, but the petrol market deregulation began in 2024 as Dangote Petroleum Refinery came on stream.

“We cannot spend our future generation investments upfront,” he noted.

”We have no choice. Otherwise, we are headed for the slippery slope… financial disaster, not just for us but our children.”

Tax Reforms

Tinubu also said that his administration’s tax reforms have come to stay.

“The tax reforms are here to stay. The reform is pro-poor and it is to widen the tax net, so we can have more people paying,” he noted.

“The hallmark of a good leader is the ability to do what you have to do at the time it ought to be done.”

Read also: Tax reforms are here to stay – Tinubu

The tax reforms are targeted at ensuring that Nigerians pay equitable, fair and just taxes to grow the Nigerian economy.

Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio, which is estimated at 10 percent, is one of the lowest globally. Ghana’s tax-to-GDP ratio is estimated at 14 percent. Rwanda is currently at 24 percent, according to Knoema, a data platform. South Africa’s is 23.3 percent, while Kenya’s is 14.3 percent, according to the World Bank. But Nigeria is lagging peers.

According to Taiwo Oyedele, chairman, Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, “Based on the way we are designing the system, we are connecting the intelligence within the whole economy. What you do on your phone with your payment cards, your bank accounts, with imports and exports, what you do when you travel abroad will be tracked and linked. If you have an investment account, shares in the stock market, you build a house, connect to electricity, that’s an intelligence that will fish you out.”

President Tinubu said on Monday that these reforms would continue to go from strength to strength.

No Cabinet Reduction

Tinubu also firmly rejected the idea of downsizing his cabinet, defending the 45 ministers he appointed to steer Nigeria’s diverse and complex governance.

Responding to critics who have often voiced discontent over his extensive cabinet, Tinubu emphasised that the size was necessary to manage a country as large as Nigeria effectively.

“I am not prepared to bring down the size of my cabinet,” he stated, stating that when selecting his ministers, he considered the need for “efficiency and effectiveness.”

He likened the country’s requirements to that of a large household, suggesting, “If you are to entertain over 200 million people, calculate how many stewards you require, not stewards.”

The president further clarified that his decision to maintain the cabinet’s size was driven by the goal of ensuring that each minister had the necessary resources and authority to meet their job description. “Efficiency, effectiveness is the hallmark of the philosophy behind that cabinet,” he affirmed, adding that he was not “ready to shrink a little bit.”

Stampedes, anti-corruption

The president also addressed the recent palliative stampedes in parts of the country that resulted in the loss of lives.

He attributed the tragedies to poor organisation.

“It is very sad that people are not well organised. We just have to be disciplined. My condolences to those who lost their family members,” he said.

Speaking on the anti-graft war of his government, the president said it was imperative that the country address the issue causing corruption, noting that his administration had moved to check corruption by increasing the minimum wage from N33,000 to N70,000. He noted that poor wages were exacerbating corruption in Nigeria.