Bagudu: Tinubu Steering Economy in Right Direction, Determined to Stay Course

•Says petroleum, solid minerals, creative industry sectors tasked to unlock potential

•Explains how tax reform bills’ passage will achieve 18% revenue-to-GDP target 

•President’s reforms will reset Nigeria, says Gov. Sani 

•Insists pains associated with FG’s policies temporary

Chuks Okocha and Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, yesterday said President Bola Tinubu had steered the economy in the right direction and was determined to stay the course.

Bagudu said this same day Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, justified the President’s tax reform bills currently at the National Assembly, stating they would help in resetting Nigeria and put it irreversibly on the path to sustainable growth and development.

Bagudu, spoke while defending his ministry’s financial estimates before the National Assembly Joint Committees on National Planning in Abuja.

He told the federal legislators, led by Senator Yahaya Abdullahi and Hon. Isiaka Ibrahim, that the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms were working and that the economy was on the path to full recovery.

Bagudu said, “President Bola Tinubu has steered the economy in the right direction, and we are determined to stay the course.

“Under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, and with your support, our economy has turned the bend and facing the right direction.

“The Renewed Hope Agenda Strategy of once and for all confronting our decades of underinvestment is working, and the positive trajectory is being sustained.”

He pointed out that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of more than three percent for three successive quarters, compared to less than one percent in industrialised countries, evidenced the increasingly positive impact of the administration’s reforms.

Bagudu listed other positive impacts, including recovery of the economy, deficit reduction, and non-recourse to ways and means beyond legal limits from over 6.1 percent in 2023 to less than four percent in 2024, which he said global business leaders and rating agencies had acknowledged.

He explained: “The reform strategy has enhanced the liquidity of the sub-nationals: States and Local Governments. FAAC allocations to all tiers of government are on the increase. With the elimination of forex and fuel subsidies, among other reforms, the increase shall be sustained.”

The Minister assured the legislators that the Tinubu’s administration would generate the funds to finance the 2025 financial plans through innovative financing and line budget allocation.

To this end, he explained that Tinubu had charged the petroleum, solid mineral, and creative industry sectors with developing their potential.

Bagudu emphasised that with the help of the National Assembly, his ministry, which he said was the chief marketer of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and Agenda 2050 strategies, would implement innovative financing measures to expand economic activities and generate substantial revenue to fund ongoing critical infrastructures.

Bagudu said, “As the chief marketer of the Renewed Hope Agenda and Agenda 2050 strategies, the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning is poised to intensify its innovative financing to take forward the delivery of the Renewed Hope infrastructure, including housing, roads and railway.

“We shall more aggressively raise funding for our creative and high-impact programmes, including Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund, Consumer Credit, National Agriculture Development Fund, Mortgage Fund, CNG Energy transition, Student Loans Fund, and support to NANO and MSMEs.”

He explained that, in addition to the funds that would accrue from maintaining fuel and removing forex subsidies, the administration was determined to increase crude oil production beyond the estimated 2.06 barrels per day at a lower cost.

The minister said as the Crude Oil Theft Committee ramps up its activities to contain the crime, more funds will flow into the national treasury.

“Our ministry and agencies are leading many engagements to get more resources to finance critical infrastructures in your constituencies,” he added.

Bagudu added that there would be more spending with more revenues.

He urged legislators to pass the tax reform bills, saying their passage would smoothen the government’s path to achieving its 18 percent revenue-to-GDP target.

He assured them that the Tinubu’s administration remained focused on achieving a higher growth rate that would include all this year.

Bagudu also spoke about the ministry’s bilateral and multilateral coordination mandate and said the economic reforms earned the appreciation and respect of the nation’s development partners.

He said many countries, including China, had comprehensively scaled up their relations and partnerships with Nigeria.

He emphasised that the ministry signed many high-impact agreements on behalf of the country last year, including five with China and six with the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

He said, “Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, and Mr. Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, visited Nigeria.

“At the same time, President Bola Tinubu visited several countries in the preceding year to project the stabilising effect of the economic reforms on the nation’s economy.

“Our country has done well. President Bola Tinubu is leading the country in the best of ways.

“He has charged all of us, his ministers, to work for excellence and do everything we can to ensure that the nation generates a higher level of growth that will include all. We will.”

He revealed that the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), headed by Prof Antonia Taiye Simbine, was in the process of organising the Renewed Hope Agenda Lecture Series.

This he explained, would be a performance-tracking and measuring mechanism for the agenda.

Bagudu commended the hard work of the Dr Tanimu Yakubu-led Budget Office, which produced the 2025 estimates with several defining features that ensured transparency and guaranteed that the nation’s resources would be channelled to its critical needs.

Gov. Sani: Tinubu’s Reforms Will Reset Nigeria

Meanwhile, Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, has justified Tinubu’s tax reform bills currently at the National Assembly, stating that were determined to reset Nigeria and put it irreversibly on the path to sustainable growth and development.

Also, the Governor acknowledged that implementing the President’s bold policies has not been without challenges and pains for Nigerians, clarifying that the pains are temporary.

He made this known in his welcome address at a one-day lecture organised by  Arewa Think Tank yesterday, saying with just a little more patience and perseverance “we shall start reaping the fruits of the reforms.”

According to the governor, “In fact, we are already turning the corner. The economy is fast improving. Very soon the positive impact of the reforms would be felt by Nigerians. What the President needs at this critical time is the support of our people.

“The Renewed Hope Agenda is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visionary and transformative policy thrust, aimed at repositioning Nigeria as a global investment hub.

“The Agenda which is anchored on the core pillars of democracy, development and diaspora engagement, is being vigorously pursued with courage and patriotic zeal.”

He said to transform Nigeria and give Nigerians a new lease of life, priority attention must be given to agriculture as was the case during the country’s Independence.

According to him, agriculture was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.

“Due to the discovery of oil, we abandoned agriculture. We are the poorer for it. We must return to agriculture and invest heavily in it. It holds the key to addressing the challenges of poverty, unemployment and insecurity,” he added.

Sani, however, maintained that “President Bola  Tinubu is already showing us the way. His administration has prioritised agriculture and is investing heavily in mechanisation and empowerment of smallholder farmers.”

According to Sani, Tinubu’s investment in agriculture was unequaled in the history of administrations in Nigeria.

“Mr. President has equally been giving sustained assistance to sub-nationals in respect of funds and agricultural inputs.

“Mr. President recently made history by creating the Ministry of Livestock Development which holds the potential of making Nigeria the leading producer of livestock in Africa,” he added.

He maintained that, “with an average annual production of staple crops such as maize, millet, and sorghum reaching over two million metric tonnes, it has made Kaduna State the largest producer of Maize in Nigeria and the sole producer of one of the best Ginger species in the world.

“Kaduna is also blessed with rich, arable and uncultivated soil; however, we are yet to fully unlock its potential. Through targeted funding, we aim to scale up irrigation farming, particularly along the Kaduna River basin, and provide mechanisation support to our farmers.”

Sani disclosed that his administration has invested heavily in mechanising the agricultural sector.

“In the 2024 farming season, we distributed 500 trucks of fertilizer, from which 240,000 bags were given out free to 120,000 smallholder farmers. We also distributed farm inputs to thousands of beneficiaries under the Tallafin Noma (A Koma Noma) Scheme.

“By removing the financial barriers to agricultural inputs, we ensured that our farmers can cultivate with confidence and that our state will reap the rewards of higher productivity and income,” he added.