President Bola Tinubu has said, with active collaboration with the private sector, he will not relent in revamping Nigeria’s economy.
Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, said Tinubu was speaking at an audience on Thursday in Abuja with members of the Board and Management of the Nigeria Economic Support Group (NESG).
The President reiterated his unequivocal resolve to fully implement the eight priority reform areas under the Renewed Hope Agenda within the next three years.
The president emphasised that Nigeria is blessed with rich human and natural resources, in addition to deficit opportunities, which can quickly be leveraged into new prosperity, calling for the urgent exploitation of Nigeria’s diversity for collective gain, with an eye on new think tanks in the agricultural sector and the establishment of a commodity exchange.
“We have gone through the past. I will not look back. The focus of my horse and my race remains forward-looking. We have an abundance of knowledge, untapped mineral resources, and an agricultural sector that is God-given. Still, we tend to shy away from taking those gigantic steps that will bring our people prosperity. We are not exploiting our diversity for prosperity; we are at each other’s throats, arguing about unnecessary things instead of thinking and doing for our people,” the President said.
Tinubu noted that he was elected on a “no excuses” platform for renewed hope and that he will not accept excuses from anyone in his government as they set out to deliver on his agenda.
“Looking backward is retrogressive for any reformer. Looking forward can give you the leaps that will propel you in the right direction. We need think tanks in the agricultural sector. I don’t see why Nigeria would be so blessed with good soil and not have a commodity exchange. I don’t see why we have not been able to interrogate our real estate sector and propel it.
“I don’t see why we have not used consumer credit to build the purchasing power of our people and the capacity of our very own manufacturing sector,” the President assessed.
On his part, the Chairman of NESG, Mr. Olaniyi Yusuf, welcomed the economic reforms announced by the Tinubu administration, specifically concerning fuel subsidy removal, foreign exchange rate harmonisation, food security and palliatives to sub-national governments.
The NESG Chairman pledged that the NESG would work with the newly inaugurated cabinet to achieve the administration’s eight-point agenda.
“Your track record in the effective implementation of bold economic reforms as the Governor of Lagos leaves those of us in the private sector without doubt that you will achieve much greater feats as our nation’s president,” the NESG Chairman confided.
