President Bola Tinubu Wednesday set a target of seven per annual economic growth by 2027, aiming to lift millions out of poverty and expand the economy to four times its current size by 2030.
Since coming into office in 2023, Tinubu has ended petrol and electricity subsidies and twice devalued the naira currency to boost Nigeria’s decade-long sluggish output.
However, those steps triggered the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation and have yet to deliver faster growth.
Nigeria’s economy grew by 3.13 per cent in the first quarter, boosted by a rebasing its gross domestic product. The exercise raised the size of the economy to N372.822 trillion (about $243.55 billion), but the growth was slower than expected.
Addressing the federal cabinet, Tinubu said the reforms had bolstered macroeconomic stability and investor confidence, but flagged low public savings as a constraint on growth.
Public investment accounts for just five per wof gross domestic product, he added.
“To sustain our momentum, we must optimize every available naira,” Tinubu said, instructing his economic team to review revenue retention and deductions from the federal account, including fees levied by agencies such as the tax agency, Customs, and national oil firm NNPC Ltd.
The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) currently allows NNPC to retain 30 per cent of certain revenues for managing oil and gas operations and to deduct 30 per cent of its profits for funding exploration in underexplored frontier basins.