Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, has reassured the Nigerian people that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic reforms will help the country get out of its economic slump.
At a news conference held on Saturday at the Bauchi office of the Tuggar Foundation, the Minister of Foreign Affairs pleaded with the people to have patience with the administration led by the All Progressives Congress.
He made the observation that Nigeria’s present economic woes are a global phenomena and went on to say that comparable problems are being felt all over the world.
According to Maitama Tuggar, the economic problems that the Tinubu government inherited were caused by both internal and external forces.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which he said followed the 2008 financial crisis, impacted people’s ability to travel about and make a living.
“In Nigeria and around the world, the cost of living has been significantly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down borders, stopped the flow of goods and services, and killed a lot of people,” he said.
Inadequate investment in increasing refinery capacities to fulfill the rising demand for gasoline, the Minister continued, has disrupted Nigeria’s economy.
He brought up the fact that Nigeria relies on imported gasoline and said that the country’s four refineries aren’t equal to the task of meeting the demands of its more than 220 million people.
He continued by saying that the economic problems in Nigeria were worsened because the country’s decision to buy more gasoline occurred at the same time that world prices were rising.
Tuggar went on to discuss the difficulties surrounding the currency rate, which, according to him, has been impacted by consumption-based subsidy programs rather than production-based ones.
He elaborated on how Nigeria lost a lot of money under the old arrangement as it had to use hard currency to pay for petroleum import subsidies.
Given these circumstances, Tuggar applauded President Tinubu’s macroeconomic reforms, which were unveiled in May 2023 and seek to do away with gasoline import subsidies and overhaul the system of currency rates to forestall unfair behaviors.
The Minister emphasized the critical importance of the changes in restoring economic stability and easing the present difficulties.
The administration has taken action, detaining individuals involved in cryptocurrency-related crimes, including money laundering and regulatory evasion, which he revealed as a source of concern during his remarks.