Anxiety persists over failure of Tinubu’s economic policies

Economic experts and opinion leaders are worried that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has largely inspired the economic policies of the Tinubu administration, recently downgraded Nigeria’s economic growth rate to 3.0 percent.

Human rights lawyer, Barrister Olalekan F. Ojo, told our correspondent in Lagos at the weekend that the IMF downgrade casts serious doubts on the Tinubu administration’s repeated claims of economic progress, reports Sunday Independent.

Ojo, a strong advocate of social justice, and the Managing Part-ner, Platinum & Taylor Hill LP, a leading law firm in Nigeria, said: “At first glance, the administra-tion has introduced reforms that appear bold — subsidy removal, forex market unification, and tax reforms.

“But the living reality for most Nigerians is worsening inflation, unemployment, and a painful cost of living crisis.

“The IMF’s downgrade is not just about numbers, it reflects the harsh truth that these policies, though well-intended, have so far done little to ease the economic hardship faced by everyday citizens.

“As a legal practitioner, I must emphasise that economic governance is not just about reforms; it is about responsibility.

“The Nigerian Constitution mandates the government to promote prosperity and welfare. If Nigerians are getting poorer, despite bold economic headlines, then something is fundamentally wrong, either with the implementation, the priorities, or the integrity of the data being presented.

“The administration should not view the IMF’s assessment as an attack, but rather as a wake-up call.

“Now is the time for a more people-centred economic approach, one that blends reform with relief.

“Social protection must be strengthened, legal and institutional transparency must be enforced, and communication with the public must be honest and accountable.

“Ultimately, credibility is earned not through press releases, but through progress that citizens can see, touch, and feel.”

Also speaking with our correspondent, Professor John Ebhomien, a former World Bank and IMF econ-omist and financial expert, said: “The IMF Economic World Outlook for 2025, which downgraded Nige-ria’s economic growth rate to 3.0 percent, is a clarion call for the monetary and fiscal authorities to put in place an appropriate mechanism for sound economic growth in place of baseless conjectures.

“The federal government must take urgent steps to mitigate the effects of President Donald Trump tariffs trade war, which had generated significant concerns.

“They must ensure price stability, reduce inflation, and build confidence in our currency.

“The dollarisation of our economy is unacceptable. The government must put on a thinking cap, look beyond the IMF forecast, and guide against the US, China and other countries’ trade wars. This is the way forward.”

However, Bishop Herbert Ekechukwu, an economist, maintained that the IMF has not really downgraded Nigerian economic development by 3%, but rather retained its 3.2% economic growth forecast for Nigeria.

Dr Ekechukwu, a church leader, explained: “The IMF and its sister organisation, the World Bank, are in the forefront of advising or mild in forcing nations to adopt and implement their recommendations.

“President Tinubu started his regime by adopting the IMF/World Bank policy of subsidy removal and foreign exchange policy.

“Along the line, due to inconsistency in policy and overwhelming corruption and nepotism, things have fallen apart and the centre cannot hold.

“Therefore, let us look at its impact on Nigerian eco-nomic development.

“President Bola Tinu-bu’s economic reforms may not likely yield desired results in the short term.

“Secondly, it will affect investors’ confidence, therefore limiting foreign investments’ inflow.

“The government needs to reassess and adjust its economic policies to achieve a better outcome.

“The challenge with President Bola Tinubu’s re-forms is lacking an administrative clear-cut plan to cushion the effects of vul-nerable economic policies.

“Also, there is a lack of transparency, fiscal credibility and accountability. These are grossly lacking in his regime.

“Thirdly, there is also lack of public support because of perceived illegitimacy of the government due to the 2023 elections and post outcome.

“The public does not believe that this government is sincere.”

EDUN, CARDOSO ON INFLATION REDUCTION

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, on Friday reiterated the plans of the Nigerian government to reduce the inflation rate to single digits.

Cardoso, while addressing journalists during a press conference by the Nigerian economic team as part of activities marking the end of the 2025 IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, called for collective efforts by Nigerians to address the nation’s economy in the face of the heightening President Donald Trump’s trade war tensions

The delegation was led by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, and included Cardoso, Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha, and other top officials of government.

The delegation had a series of meetings with fund managers, global financial leaders, multilateral institutions, investors and other development partners to cement existing relationships, create new partnerships and spread the news of the dividends of Nige-ria’s economic reforms.

Cardoso noted that the government recognises the impact of inflationary pressures on Nigerians and would work towards reducing the inflation rate to single digits.

“We recognise that inflation remains the most disruptive force to the economic welfare of Nigerians.

“Our policy stance is firmly focused on bringing inflation down to single dig-it in a sustainable manner over the medium term,” he said.

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 24.23 per cent in March from 23.18 per cent in February 2025, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The bureau in its March 2025 headline inflation report said that the rate showed an increase of 1.05 per cent compared to the February 2025 headline inflation rate.

On a month-on-month basis, it said the headline inflation rate in March 2025 was 3.90 per cent, which was 1.85 per cent higher than the rate recorded in February 2025 (2.04 per cent).

This, it said, means that in March 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in February 2025.

The CBN governor, not-ed that the painful reforms embarked upon by Nigeria now yield positive results and at the IMF meetings this week, the nation was a reference point of how reforms could change the economic trajectory of a nation for the better.

“The reforms are not easy, but they are delivering results. We have moved from a position of vulnerability toward one of growing strength,” the CBN governor explained.

Edun, in his address, disclosed that the Nigerian government is in talks with development partners, notably the World Bank, to create job opportunities for Nigeria’s unemployed population in pursuit of sustainable employment and poverty eradication.

“The objective is to create jobs locally, empower youth, and support this through essential infrastructure.

“For young people, that includes digital infrastructure, access to data, internet, and fibre optic networks, to enable them to work remotely,” the minister said.

Nigeria’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, from 5.3 per cent in Q1 2024.

On macroeconomic uncertainty, Edun and Cardoso, noted that the world now faces a very uncertain future, but assured that Nigeria is well positioned to survive the shocks in the face of heightened tensions, inflation, and declining global growth.

Cardoso stressed the significance of Nigeria’s efforts in restoring investor confidence, adding that Nigeria had a high-level investment forum at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, which gave insights into the positive impact of the reforms and growing appetite for investment in Nigeria by Diaspora Nige-rians and non-Nigerians.

“The New York forum delivered powerful outcomes. It significantly bolstered investor confidence in Nige-ria’s market fundamentals, with leading voices affirming the country’s economic progress and renewed standing as a compelling investment destination,” Cardoso said.

The CBN governor added that Nigeria recorded a balance of payments surplus of $6.83 billion in 2024, principally on the back of rising exports and capital inflows.

“This supported the stability of the domestic unit amid, boosted investor confidence, discouraged speculative arbitrage and closed the gap between official and parallel market rates,” he said.

IMF CONCERNED ABOUT OIL, GAS SECTOR

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had, on Friday, called on the Nigerian government to engender transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector so as to ensure that the gains of subsidy removal is fully maximised for the benefits of Nigerians.

Abebe Selassie, the Head of African Department at the IMF, made this known while presenting the regional economic outlook for sub-Saharan Africa on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington DC.

Selassie said: “We have been commending bold reforms by the government, but we need to see a little more transparency in the oil sector to ensure that fuel subsidy removal can result in more flow of resources into government coffers.”

The Head of African Department at the IMF, in response to questions on the federal government’s reforms and Nigeria’s debt profile, noted that the IMF was impressed by the re-forms undertaken by the Nigerian government to address macroeconomic imbalances in the country.

Nigeria announced removal of fuel subsidy shortly after President Bola Tinubu was sworn in as president in May 2023. The decision triggered disruption across sectors of the economy amid elevated inflationary pressures and general discontent among the people.

Selassie emphasised that the subsidy was taking “a very large” share of government tax revenues, thus hampering optimal delivery of social services.

“So it’s been really good to see the government tak-ing these head on, and also beginning to roll out the third component of the re-forms that we’ve been advocating for, that the government has been pursuing, which is to expand social protection to target generalised subsidies to help the most vulnerable,” he said.

“This has all been very good to see, but more can be done, particularly on the latter front; expanding social protection and also enhancing a lot more transparency in the oil sector, so that the removal of subsidies does translate into flow of revenue into the government budget. So, there’s still a bit more work to do in these areas.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Nigeria’s finance minister Olawale Edun told a gathering of investors, fund man-agers and financial experts in Washington that a forensic audit of the state-owned NNPC is underway. He added that the government also plans to reconcile the books of the oil company to reposition it for efficient operations and service delivery.

“The NNPC needs to come to the table with more dollar revenue,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, in its regional outlook, the IMF said public debt ratios in sub-Saharan Africa have broadly stabilised but remain elevated compared to the pre-COVID-19 period.

Baseline projections imply continued regional debt stabilisation — and even some reduction — but with the assumption that recent efforts to consolidate bud-gets are maintained and in some cases intensified.

Interest payments and overall debt service as a share of revenues are high, both historically and com-pared with other regions, constraining critical development spending, it added.