The Nigerian economy is not in distress and the current situation is not beyond redemption, President Bola AHmed Tinubu said on Tuesday.
Stressing that efforts were on to navigate the country out of the current challenges, Tinubu said that the latest economic indicators do not portray a country in distress.
Tinubu spoke at the 16th Leadership Conference and Awards held at the Transcorp Hotel, Abuja organised by Abuja-based Leadership Newspaper.
The Conference and Awards had as theme: “An economy in distress: which way forward?”
Tinubu, who received the Leadership Newspaper’s Person of the Year 2023 award and was represented by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, acknowledged that the country is faced with challenges but is not helpless.
According to Tinubu: “I should start by respectfully challenging the notion that the Nigerian economy is in distress.
“Distress suggests helplessness, being at the mercy of something we have no control over. But that is not the case here.
“We are in challenging times, no doubt, but these times have also been marked by unprecedented opportunities to reset the course and to build a new and sustainable economy, away from the rent-seeking and the waste that was once the order of the day.
“The Leadership Group has itself alluded to the ‘difficult but necessary’ decisions that we have taken.
“Since the removal of petrol subsidy, our imports of petrol have dropped by about 50 per cent, which translates to roughly one billion litres of petrol every month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
“In addition, the revenues accruing to the three tiers of Government – Federal, State and Local – have grown by between 50 per cent and 100 per cent since the removal of the petrol subsidy.
“This means more funds are available to directly impact the lives of Nigerians through investments in critical infrastructure, social security, and other areas.”
Tinubu said the economy saw a better-than-anticipated performance in the last quarter of 2023.
He noted that it grew by 3.46 per cent (year-on-year), compared with 2.54 per cent in the preceding quarter.
Capital importation into Nigeria, he said, was up 66 per cent in Q4 2023, reversing a 36 per cent decline in the previous quarter.
In January 2024, the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index (ASI) crossed the 100,000 points mark, its highest ever, the President said.
“There is no one who looks at this data who will conclude that ‘distressed’ is the accurate way to describe the Nigerian economy.
“Yes, we are challenged in a number of ways. But these are the outcomes of necessary reforms, and a lot of effort and energy is going into alleviating these pains and setting the economy on firm footing.
“And we are seeing incredible opportunities for investment in every sector of the economy, as we stabilize our foreign exchange market and our macroeconomic indices.
“I ask for the continuing patience and support of all Nigerians, including the elite that is very well represented in this room today.
“To the Nigerian media, I urge you to strive to report not only the challenges but also the solutions and the opportunities as well.
“Ours is a story of a country that is taking the right steps, and feeling the fleeting pains that will come with this course of action. A glorious dawn is indeed assured.”
The President also paid tribute to Leadership founder, the late Sam Nda-Isaiah.
He said: “Your memory will continue to live on, not only in our hearts but also in your brilliant writings and in the family and the business legacies that you left behind.
“To Madam Zainab Nda-Isaiah, thank you for carrying on so boldly and powerfully from where Sam stopped.
“We appreciate what you’re doing, and we will continue to support you.”
The award organisers said the Person of the Year honour was a recognition of Tinubu’s “undisputable can-do spirit” in defying the odds to emerge as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, going on to win the 2023 presidential election.
The award, the newspaper said, is also to acknowledge the President’s courage in taking many difficult but necessary decisions to reposition the country towards economic prosperity.