Says ratio of debt servicing from earning has reduced from 97% to 68%
President Bola Tinubu today declared that in the face of difficulties ,the country has increased its revenue earning to N9.1Trillion in the first six months of this year.
In a Nationwide broadcast on the protests on hardship,he revealed that the country has reduced ratio of debt servicing from revenue earnings from 97% to 68% in the first thirteen months of his administration.
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He said the administration has made significant strides in rebuilding the foundation of the economy in the past 14 months.
He said that the present administration has made significant strides in rebuilding the foundation
of our economy to carry us into a future of plenty and abundance.
“On the fiscal side, aggregate government revenues have more than doubled, hitting over 9.1 trillion Naira in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023 due to our efforts at blocking leakages, introducing automation, and mobilising funding creatively without 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”
Speaking further he declared, “My dear brothers and sisters, we have come this far. 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” he said.
This, according to Tinubu 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” said President Tinubu.
Such projects include : Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Sokoto-Badagry Highway projects which will open up 16 connecting states, creating thousands of jobs and boosting economic output through trade, tourism and cultural integration
“Our once-declining oil and gas industry is experiencing a resurgence on the back of the reforms I announced in May 2024 to address the gaps in the Petroleum Industry Act” he said.
Speaks further he declared “Last month, we increased our oil production to 1.61million barrels per day, and our gas assets are receiving the attention they deserve. Investors are coming back, and we have already seen two Foreign Direct Investments signed of over half a billion dollars since then”.
Though Nigeria is blessed with both oil and gas resources, President Tinubu lamented that this administration has met a country that had been dependent solely on oil-based petrol, neglecting its gas resources to power the economy.
“We were also using our hard-earned foreign exchange to pay for, and subsidise its use. To address this, we immediately launched our Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (CNG) to power our transportation economy and bring costs down. This will save over two trillion Naira a month, being used to import PMS and AGO and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and education” he stated.
“To this end, we will be distributing a million kits of extremely low or no cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods and who currently consume 80% of the imported PMS and AGO”.
“We have started the distribution of conversion kits and setting up of conversion centres across the country in conjunction with the private sector. We believe that this CNG initiative will reduce transportation costs by approximately 60 per cent and help to curb inflation”.
This administration he pointed out has shown its commitment to the youth by setting up the student loan scheme.
“To date, 45.6billion Naira has already been processed for payment to students and their respective institutions”
Tinubu however encouragey more of our vibrant youth population to take advantage of this opportunity.
“We established the Consumer Credit Corporation with over N200billion to help Nigerians to acquire essential products without the need for immediate cash payments, making life easier for millions of households. This will consequently reduce corruption and eliminate cash and opaque transactions. This week, I ordered the release of an additional N50billion Naira each for NELFUND – the student loan, and Credit Corporation from the proceeds of crime recovered by the EFCC”
“Additionally, we have secured $620million under the Digital and Creative Enterprises (IDiCE) – a programme to empower our young people, creating millions of IT and technical jobs that will make them globally competitive. These programmes include the 3Million Technical Talents scheme. Unfortunately, one of the digital centres was vandalised during the protests in Kano. What a shame!”
In addition, this administration have introduced the Skill-Up Artisans Programme (SUPA); the Nigerian Youth Academy (NIYA); and the National Youth Talent Export Programme (NATEP).
“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 concluded.
