Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, has said that non-implementation of economic reforms by past administrations is the reason Nigerians are in pain, discomfort, and difficulties under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reforms.
Edun said this on Friday in Abuja at the launch of ‘Federal Civil Service Policies and Guidelines on Rewards’.
This comes as Nigerians grapple with the economic hardship caused by fuel subsidy removal and Naira floating in June last year.
The policies saw fuel prices surge to above N1060 per litre from N234 and Naira jumped to N1652 per dollar from N195.
However, Edun stressed that the non-implementation of the reforms by the previous governments was one of the reasons the current reforms were painful.
According to him, despite the pains and discomforts and difficulties experienced by Nigerians due to the policies, the successes and gains are coming through.
“After 18 months of bold and necessary reforms that Mr. President has implemented, the country has changed, and yes, the reforms were so long overdue that it caused an element of pain, discomfort, difficulty, and increased cost of living. But the successes and the gains are coming through.
“Market-based pricing of foreign exchange was fully in place. The result was immediate benefit to the federal coffers, to the state coffers, and to the local government coffers because an amount of 5 percent of GDP is what goes to subsidies,” he said.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics’ October 2024 headline and food inflation figures rose to 33.88 percent and 39.16 percent, respectively. This has weakened the purchasing power of many Nigerians.
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