Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, on Thursday, declared that the federal government’s economic reform programme had entered a new phase of ensuring that reforms translated into investments, productive jobs, and tangible improvements in household incomes.
Oyedele said the reform’s priority was no longer merely restoring macroeconomic stability but also making sure it generated impact.
He spoke at the 7th Africa Emerging Markets Forum (EMF) hosted by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Abuja.
Oyedele said the current administration had completed the difficult work of stabilising the economy and must now ensure ordinary Nigerians began to feel the benefits.
According to him, macroeconomic stability alone is insufficient if it fails to improve living standards.
He said, “Our task now is converting that stability into investment, investment into productivity, productivity into decent jobs, decent jobs into incomes that Nigerian families can actually feel in a tangible way.
“A reform that shows up on national statistics but not on the household dining table hasn’t finished its job.”
Oyedele, while addressing concerns over the high cost of borrowing, acknowledged that elevated interest rates remained a major constraint to investment and growth.
He described inflation as the country’s biggest economic enemy.
He said the Federal Ministry of Finance was developing a framework to reduce the cost of capital without reintroducing subsidies, in complement to CBN’s monetary tightening measures.
Oyedele also acknowledged that Nigerians deserved answers to how savings from fuel subsidy removal had been utilised,
He disclosed that government would soon publish a comprehensive breakdown of the savings and how they had been deployed.
According to him, although subsidy removal generated fiscal savings estimated at about five per cent of GDP when combined with foreign exchange reforms, the principal objective was eliminating systemic distortions and corruption rather than simply reducing expenditure.
The minister described the reforms initiated by President Bola Tinubu’s administration as among the most comprehensive in the country’s modern history.
Specifically, he stressed that difficult decisions, such as foreign exchange liberalisation, fuel subsidy removal, and tax reforms, were necessary to correct long-standing structural distortions that had discouraged investment and weakened competitiveness.
According to him, postponing the reforms would have imposed greater economic costs than implementing them.
Oyedele said government had simplified the tax system, removed multiple taxes, expanded tax reliefs for small businesses and low-income earners, abolished VAT on essential goods and services, and established the Office of the Tax Ombud to strengthen taxpayer confidence.
He pointed out that the reforms were not primarily about increasing government revenue but making Nigeria a more competitive investment destination.
The minister cited a series of macroeconomic indicators, adding that capital inflows have risen significantly while the Nigerian capital market has emerged as the world’s best-performing market so far in 2026.
Oyedele also said the economy expanded by 3.89 per cent in the first quarter of the year. He said non-oil GDP grew by 3.94 per cent during the same period, foreign reserves exceeded $50 billion, and inflation moderated considerably from its 2024 peak.
He said, “Capital has no passports, no tribe and no patriotic loyalty. It responds to evidence, not rhetoric.”
He said the federal government had expanded cash transfers to 15 million vulnerable households, a programme he said had lifted an estimated 7.5 million Nigerians out of extreme poverty, while recently launching the NG-CARES, HOPE and SOLID programmes worth more than $3 billion to strengthen primary healthcare, basic education, and support for vulnerable communities.
Oyedele revealed that both the ministry and the central bank had strengthened policy coordination by aligning macroeconomic assumptions before policy decisions were taken.
The minister said, “If the central bank sees inflation going one way and fiscal authorities assume something different, we end up working at cross-purposes.”
He added that both institutions now sought common assumptions to ensure policy coherence.
He explained that much of the fiscal space created had been absorbed by higher debt servicing costs following increased interest rates, implementation of the new national minimum wage, and expanded social investments, including the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
Rejecting criticisms that continued government borrowing contradicted improved revenue performance, the minister stated that exceeding revenue targets did not automatically eliminate the need for deficit financing.
He said borrowing remained appropriate provided the resources generated returns greater than their financing costs.
On poverty, Oyedele disagreed with suggestions that the reforms had worsened welfare outcomes without prospects for recovery.
He stated that while subsidy removal inevitably reduced purchasing power in the short term, Nigeria was already experiencing a recovery in real incomes.
According to him, real per capita income in dollar terms grew by almost 10 per cent in 2025, positioning the country among the fastest countries recovering from reform-induced poverty.
He said rather than measuring success through GDP growth alone, government would increasingly assess performance using multidimensional poverty, real per capita income growth, and inequality indicators to determine whether prosperity was broadly shared.
The minister also questioned the interpretation of Nigeria’s official unemployment figures, stating that although unemployment stands at five per cent, poverty remains widespread because millions of Nigerians are trapped in low-productivity jobs.
He said government would, therefore, prioritise sectors, such as agriculture and retail services, where more than 80 per cent of Nigerians earn their livelihoods, to stimulate productivity and create better-paying employment.
On industrialisation, Oyedele said the administration was complementing Nigeria’s new industrial policy with efforts to dismantle excessive bureaucracy and regulatory bottlenecks.
He disclosed that preliminary government analysis indicated that the economic cost of policy inconsistency, overregulation, and administrative delays exceeded the combined revenues generated from corporate income tax, personal income tax, and levies.
“One thing that is better than incentives is removing disincentives,” he said.
Looking ahead, Oyedele reaffirmed the administration’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy by 2030, insisting the target is achievable through disciplined execution of reforms rather than political slogans.
He also outlined three immediate priorities for the Federal Ministry of Finance — revenue optimisation, growth and fiscal discipline — while unveiling what he described as the ministry’s new operational “DNA”: diligent execution, national interest, and accountability.
As part of efforts to strengthen transparency, the minister said the ministry was building a new public data portal that would provide timely and credible economic information.
He said, “We no longer want to be referencing the World Bank about Nigeria’s data. We will own our data, and the data will be credible, accessible and timely.”
James Emejo
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