Uwaleke: Next Phase of Reforms Should Address Budget Implementation Weakness, Public Spending Inefficiency

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

Renowned professor of capital market and former Commissioner for Finance, Imo State, Uche Uwaleke, has stated that renewed policy coherence is one of the defining characteristics of the current administration’s economic strategy, but admonished that the next phase of reforms should focus on addressing persistent budget implementation weakness and public spending inefficiency.

Appraising President Ahmed Tinubu administration’s economic trajectory in the past 36 months in an article titled, ‘Three Years After: A Critical Evaluation of Tinubu’s Economic Reforms’, Uwaleke noted that several macroeconomic indicators currently reflect gradual stabilisation, adding that these developments collectively suggest that the reforms, though painful, are beginning to yield measurable macroeconomic benefits.

But he observed that one of the major structural problems undermining economic development is the continued implementation of overlapping and multiple-year budgets, which often delays capital project execution and weakens fiscal discipline.

He said, “In 2025, for example, less than 30 per cent of budgeted capital projects were reportedly implemented despite significant borrowing. This creates a situation where government accumulates debt without corresponding infrastructure delivery or economic productivity gains.

“The next phase of reforms must therefore focus on strengthening budget credibility, improving project monitoring mechanisms, eliminating duplication in capital allocations, enforcing stricter timelines for procurement and implementation, and ensuring that borrowed funds are tied directly to measurable developmental outcomes.

“Nigeria cannot continue operating a fiscal system where recurrent expenditure consistently overwhelms capital investment while critical infrastructure deficits persist across the country.”

Uwaleke, who is a professor of capital market with the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, and President of the Capital Market Academics of Nigeria (CMAN), pointed out that the journey of the last 36 months has been difficult, controversial in some respects, but undeniably transformational in many fundamental ways.

According to him, rarely has any administration confronted so many entrenched structural distortions within such a short period while simultaneously attempting to reposition the economy for long-term sustainability.

“The significance of this moment therefore lies not merely in celebrating political longevity, but in critically assessing the depth of the reforms undertaken, the progress achieved, the sacrifices borne by Nigerians, and the urgent work that still lies ahead if the country must achieve inclusive growth, large-scale job creation, poverty reduction, and accelerated infrastructural development,” he said.

The financial economist noted that when Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, Nigeria’s economy was weighed down by multiple crises.

Fiscal instability, he argued, had reached alarming levels, foreign exchange distortions had undermined investor confidence, inflationary pressures were rising, fuel subsidy payments had become unsustainable, and economic policy credibility had significantly deteriorated. He stated that the country was effectively operating an economy that subsidised consumption instead of production, rewarded arbitrage instead of productivity, and encouraged rent-seeking instead of innovation.

Uwaleke explained that difficult and politically costly reforms, therefore, became inevitable.

For him, perhaps, the boldest and most consequential decision of the administration was the removal of fuel subsidy.