The Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has stated that President Bola Tinubu’s administration inherited a bad economy.
Speaking to newsmen on Monday after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, Edun noted that the Tinubu administration inherited a bad economy with an unacceptable high rate of unemployment and inflation standing at 24 percent.
According to Edun, “per capita has fallen steadily, inflation is at 24 percent, unemployment is high, and you know they are rebasing the way in which it’s calculated. Either way, it is high, and youth unemployment is even unacceptably high; these are the key metrics that we have met.”
Edun also stated that the Federal Government is not in a position to borrow money at this time, adding that the emphasis is on how to create a macroeconomic environment where both local and foreign investors will invest and increase production.
“So, that is the plan. The expectation is that there will not be a reliance on borrowing. Rather, as revenues increase and the benefit of removing the fuel subsidy and the subsidy on the exchange rate increases, there will be more money for the government at all levels.”
Edun, who noted that the Council agreed that the economy is not where it ought to be, also stated that the FEC examined eight priority areas and identified targets to deliver in the next three years, adding that the President charged them to roll out policies and programs to turn the economy around.
“Essentially, we went through an exercise of looking at where things stood regarding the economy, growth rate, exchange rate, inflation, unemployment, and so on.
“The overriding conclusion is that we’re not where we should be, and we also examined the President’s eight-point agenda, that is, the eight priority areas for moving the Nigerian economy forward and for delivering to Nigerians, and those are basically food security; ending poverty; economic growth and job creation; access to capital, particularly consumer credit; inclusivity in all its dimensions as regards youths and women; improving security; improving the playing field on which people and particularly companies operate; rule of law; and of course, fighting corruption.
“It is around those matrixes that the plans and targets of what will be delivered in the next three years or so were identified, discussed, and inputs were given by various ministers, and we went away with the marching order to refine further the targets in particular and within weeks to start rolling out policies and programs to turn around the economy and make things better for all Nigerians.”
Chronicle NG reports that Tinubu on Monday, issued a marching order to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to implement initiatives aimed at reviving the economy.
He handed the charge to his ministers while presiding over his administration’s first FEC meeting, which was held at the State House Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
In his inauguration address to his 45 ministers, Tinubu emphasized the enormity of the work before the administration, demanding all those assigned responsibilities to give their all.
Tinubu stated that the administration’s main areas had been laid out in its economic programs and charged them with being prepared not to fail because there is no such thing as an impossibility in the dictionary of people-serving, adding that failure would not be excused under his watch.
