Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has unveiled the eight point agenda which the Bola Tinubu-led government hopes to use in transforming the challenging economic environment.
The minister made the disclosure on Friday at a briefing in Abuja.
He said the administration has pointed out eight key priority areas including food security; economic growth; utilizing human resources by focusing on inclusivity, women and youths; focusing on rule of law and anti-corruption among others.
Edun said there would be periodic performance evaluations for the different ministers for Nigerians to see their achievements.
He said, “This is to give you elements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s vision and his strategy for the economy and his plan to give a better economy and a better life to Nigerians.
“(Tinubu) has pointed out the 8 priority areas where he is going to take Nigeria and his key priorities are to improve the lives of Nigerians by providing food security by ending poverty. His plan for the economy is economic growth job creation, access to capital particularly consumer credit that makes growth affordable to the average Nigerian.
“He is concerned about utilizing our human resources by focusing on inclusivity, women youth, making all have the opportunity to come to the table and contribute to the growth of the economy and the society and likewise by focusing on the society, by focusing on the rule of law and anti-corruption. He intends to create, a safer, a clearer playing field for all.”
On where the country is, Edun said the last time that Nigeria had low inflation, low exchange rate, affordable interest rate and considerable economic growth was ten years ago.
“We all know we are not where we should be. The economy is growing barely above the rate of population growth but it was not always so,” he said.
Edun said during the period of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the country had enough foreign exchange to defend the naira and meet its fiscal obligations.
“What that points to is that we have a situation where if government doesn’t have the money, it needs to facilitate and allow private funding and other sources of funding such as foreign direct investments and domestic investments by Nigerians in all areas,” he said.