President Bola Tinubu has said his administration is doing a lot to stabilise the nation’s economy and ensuring that the benefits flow to every single Nigerian as promised.
The President in a Nationwide broadcast to appeal to the #endbadgovernance protesters in the country said “In the past 14 months, our government has made significant strides in rebuilding the foundation of our economy to carry us into a future of plenty and abundance”.
Speaking on the achievements of his administration in the area of fiscal policy, the President said aggregate government revenues have increased to the tume of over 9.1 trillion Naira in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023.
This achievement became realisable according to Tinubu, due to measures put in place to block leakages, the introduction of automation, and mobilisation of funding to prevent additional burden on the people.
“Productivity is gradually increasing in the non-oil sector, reaching new levels and taking advantage of the opportunities in the current economic ambience
“Coming from a place where our country spent 97% of all our revenue on debt service; we have been able to reduce that to 68% in the last 13 months. We have also cleared legitimate outstanding foreign exchange obligations of about $5billion without any adverse impact on our programmes.
“This has given us more financial freedom and the room to spend more money on you, our citizens, to fund essential social services like education and healthcare. It has also led to our State, and Local Governments receiving the highest allocations ever in our country’s history from the Federation Account.
“We have also embarked on major infrastructure projects across the country. We are working to complete inherited projects critical to our economic prosperity, including roads, bridges, railways, power, and oil and gas developments.
“Notably, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Sokoto-Badagry Highway projects will open up 16 connecting states, creating thousands of jobs and boosting economic output through trade, tourism and culture
Also, more than N570 billion has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses have benefitted from our nano-grants. An additional 400,000 more nano-businesses are expected to benefit”, he revealed.
He further disclosed that 75,000 beneficiaries have been processed to receive our N1million Micro and Small Business single-digit interest loans, starting this month.
Enumerating other achievements of the government, the Nigerian leader said “We have also built 10 MSME hubs within the past year, created 240,000 jobs through them and 5 more hubs are in progress which will be ready by October this year.
“Payments of N1billion each are also being made to large manufacturers under our single-digit loans to boost manufacturing output and stimulate growth.
“I signed the National Minimum Wage into law last week, and the lowest-earning workers will now earn at least N70,000 a month.
On efforts towards bridging the gap of housing deficit, Tinubu said “Six months ago in Karsana, Abuja, I inaugurated the first phase of our ambitious housing initiative, the Renewed Hope City and Estate.
“This project is the first of six we have planned across the nation’s geopolitical zones. Each of these cities will include a minimum of 1,000 housing units, with Karsana itself set to deliver 3,212 units
“In addition to these city projects, we are also launching the Renewed Hope Estates in every state, each comprising 500 housing units.
‘Our goal is to complete a total of 100,000 housing units over the next three years. This initiative is not only about providing homes but also about creating thousands of jobs across the nation as well as stimulating economic growth”, he said.
