The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, said on Tuesday that President Bola Tinubu had steered the economy in the right direction and was determined to stay the course.
This was revealed in a statement to The PUNCH.
The minister spoke during the defence of his ministry’s financial estimates before the National Assembly Joint Committees on National Planning in Abuja.
He said the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms were working, and the economy was on the path to full recovery.
“President Bola Tinubu has steered the economy in the right direction, and we are determined to stay the course,” Bagudu told the federal legislators, led by Senator Yahaya Abdullahi and Isiaka Ibrahim.
“Under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, and with your support, our economy has turned the bend and is 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 said.
He pointed out that GDP growth of more than three per cent for three successive quarters, compared to less than one per cent 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 per cent in 2023 to less than four per cent in 2024, which he said global business leaders and rating agencies had acknowledged.
“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,” he told the legislators.
The minister assured the legislators that the Tinubu administration would generate the funds to finance the 2025 financial plans through innovative financing and line budget allocation.
To this end, he explained that President 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.