Chukwu David 
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, on Tuesday, said that President Bola Tinubu had steered the economy in the right direction and was determined to stay the course.
Bagudu stated this during the defence of his Ministry’s 2025 Appropriation bill before the National Assembly Joint Committees on National Planning in Abuja.
He said that the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms were working and that the economy was on the path to full recovery.
He pointed out that GDP growth of more than 3% for three successive quarters, compared to less than 1% in industrialised countries, evidenced the increasingly positive impact of the administration’s reforms.
Bagudu listed other positive impacts, including recovery of the economy, deficit reduction, and non-recourse to ways and means beyond legal limits from over 6.1% in 2023 to less than 4% in 2024, which he said global business leaders and rating agencies had acknowledged.
The Minister assured the legislators that the Tinubu administration would generate the funds to finance the 2025 financial plans through innovative financing and line budget allocation, explaining that President Tinubu had charged the petroleum, solid mineral, and creative industry sectors with developing their potential.
Bagudu emphasised that with the help of the National Assembly, his ministry, which he said was the chief marketer of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and Agenda 2050 strategies, would implement innovative financing measures to expand economic activities and generate substantial revenue to fund ongoing critical infrastructures.
He explained that, in addition to the funds that would accrue from maintaining fuel and removing forex subsidies, the administration was determined to increase crude oil production beyond the estimated 2.06 barrels per day at a lower cost.
The minister said that as the Crude Oil Theft Committee ramps up its activities to contain crude theft, more funds will flow into the national treasury, saying: “Our ministry and agencies are leading many engagements to get more resources to finance critical infrastructures in your constituencies,” Bagudu told the legislators, explaining that there would be more spending with more revenues.
He urged legislators to pass the tax reform bills, saying their passage would smoothen the government’s path to achieving its 18% revenue-to-GDP target, assuring them that the Tinubu administration remained focused on achieving a higher growth rate that would include all this year.
Bagudu also spoke about the ministry’s bilateral and multilateral coordination mandate and said the economic reforms earned the appreciation and respect of the nation’s development partners.
He said many countries, including China, had comprehensively scaled up their relations and partnerships with Nigeria.
The minister highlighted the critical roles of the parastatals in the nation’s social and economic growth and development and said the ministry supported them in guarding their independence jealously to sustain their credibility.
He said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), led by Dr Adeyemi Adeniran, consistently and timely released statistics on the nation’s economic activities despite the paucity of funds. The agency is concluding its work on rebasing the GDP using 2019 prices.
He revealed that the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), headed by Prof Antonia Taiye Simbine, was in the process of organising the Renewed Hope Agenda Lecture Series, which, he explained, would be a performance-tracking and measuring mechanism for the agenda.
He pointed out that the Centre for Management Development (CMD), under the leadership of Mr Bistros Chinoko, continued to be a world-class management development institution that sets standards for excellence in management development and economic administration.
The Co-chairmen of the Joint Committees on National Planning, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi and Hon. Isiaka Ibrahim commended the Bagudu for the helicopter-view presentation and urged him to ensure a more appreciative implementation of the capital component of the 2025 Budget.
The Minister was accompanied to the budget defence by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Vitalis Emeka, ministry directors, and chief executives of its parastatals.
