The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has highlighted some of the achievements of the Tinubu administration.
The Minister spoke in Abuja on Thursday when his colleague from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole paid him courtesy visit.
Mr Idris pointed out that all the economic reforms that President Bola Tinubu instituted since taking over in May 2023 are already bearing fruits and that the economy has now turned around.
“All the fears, all the obstacles, appear to have given way, of course, because of these two very major policy reforms that the President embarked upon when he took office.
“You know, reforms that everyone wanted to do, but for 40 years, no one dared it. Now, the President knew that the only way that we can have sustainable growth, the only way that Nigeria will be on this route to prosperity is for us to take those very difficult, but necessary decisions.
“For the first time in 13 years, our foreign reserves, has crossed the $50 billion mark. This is the first time in 13 years, for the first time in a long time, and this happened in the last quarter of last year, through the coordinated effort that you and your colleagues have done.
“Nigeria was removed from the so called gray list Financial Action Task Force. Now, for those who do not know, that is a necessary step. If you belong there, it means that there are countries and companies that will not do business with you beyond a certain point.
“You know because it means you are engaging in money laundering. You know some of your businesses are engaging in financing terrorism and all that. So Nigeria has been given a clean slate by that expulsion from the Financial Action Task Force, the so called gray list. This happened in the last quarter of last year. We have to keep emphasizing that we do not belong to that list again.
For the first time we have seen headline inflation dropped beyond what we had expected, food inflation has has gone down, GDP has gone up. So I mean reserves, like I said earlier, is up all the indices and all the rating agencies of the world are saying that, indeed, Nigeria is a destination for everyone to come to.
“And I need to emphasize that at the point that people thought that America has lost hope in its partnership with Nigeria, or that America does not see Nigeria as a great partner, even as they were pushing or characterizing Nigeria as a country of particular concern.
At the same time in Nigeria, the United States is investing, especially in the health sector. They have invested heavily, more than what they have done in any other part of Africa. Here in Nigeria, we have seen that happen, and that is enabling medical industrialization revolution the health sector to also happen.
“Will continue to tell Nigerians that these reforms are indeed working, even when the naysayers think otherwise, the numbers are indicating that this is actually working. I mean, you don’t need anyone to tell you that our reserves has gone past $50 billion I mean, no opposition can oppose that. No opposition can tell us our GDP has not moved up. No opposition can tell us that inflation, but headline inflation, food inflation is not down.
“So if you aggregate all this put together, then what is the reform about? It is about enabling this to happen so that we can move forward,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs Oduwole said her ministry have done really well in delivering it’s mandate under the Renewed Hope, especially in the area of diversification of the economy, particularly pushing up non-oil exports, industrialization and and generally enabling more investment and enabling more trade.
“We’ve achieved quite a bit in terms of reforms. We’ve achieved stabilization of the economy. Mr President’s reforms have had quite some impact,” she said.
“So the third pillar is mobilizing strategic and inclusive investment for productive infrastructure, innovation and industrial transformation. You will notice quite a thing. Mister President has given this ministry a mandate to push industrialization, to make sure that we push trade and to make sure that our businesses are domestic investors Nigeria first are enhanced in every way possible.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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