Oladipupo Awojobi 
The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has commended the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for its economic policies, saying that the nation’s economy is responding positively to the reforms of the government.
The Chairman of IMPI, Chief Niyi Akinsiju, who stated this, added that painful as the decision by the Federal Government to remove petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange windows have been, the economy had responded positively by returning an impressive 3.4 percent growth in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the 4th Quarter of 2023, as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in February this year.
Akinsiju, who spoke at a recent press conference organised by the group on Social, Economic And Political Developments in the first few months of 2024, which held in Abuja, said that this confirmed IMPI’s earlier claims and projections that the economy was responding positively to the reforms of the current administration.
The IMPI Chairman said that Nigerians will soon begin to reap the harvest of their sacrifice through affordable cost of living, food security, creation of a job creating economy, access to quality education, and affordable health and transport services. “Already, we have started witness- ing the green shoots of the impact of the policy deployments on the economy.
As envisioned in our maiden press conference regarding the paradigm shift in the commercial use of natural gas as part of the Federal Government’s strategies to mitigate the costly impact of the fuel subsidy removal on vulnerable Nigerians. We are delighted to note that the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered transportation system has become a reality as promised by the president.
“Nigeria has now joined the group of nations with fleets of CNG vehicles, as all is now set for the launch and deployment of the first set of mass-transit CNG vehicles and tricycles across the 36 states of the Federation and FCT in May, 2024. “These eco-friendly vehicles will transport commuters at reduced cost, provide thousands of job opportunities for our youths, and improve the standard of living of the people.
“In the immediate, we can submit that the federal government is growing stronger on opening up and truly liberalizing the Nigerian national economy from the fetters of the past. This has reflected in the market-determined movement of the Naira in the foreign exchange market, so much that though it spiraled up to a high of N1,900/$ on 21st February, 2024 at the parallel market but now, the same Naira/dollar exchange rate currently obtains at less than N1,200/$.
Going forward we can hazard a projection of less than N1000/$ projection between now and the end of the third quarter 2024. “This implies that the Naira is now competing favourably with other world currencies and continues to affirm its place as one of the best performing currencies globally,” he said. Akinsiju noted that “on the revenue side, the removal of fuel subsidy has become a financial elixir for the hitherto constricted revenue earning capabilities of the national economy.
Nigerians are now witnesses to the monthly spectacle of Federation Accounts Allocation Committee’s (FAAC) sharing and savings never-before-earned revenue among the three tiers of government which has averaged N250bn monthly, thereby enhancing the Federal, States and Local Government Areas capacity to pay workers’ salaries and provide critical infrastructure. “While the economy is gaining much needed momentum in the enunciated areas as recorded in the first quarter of the year, we, however, observe with mixed feelings, rocketing food prices which continue to manifest in high headline inflation rate recorded at 33.2 percent, very much driven by a 40.01 percent food inflation rate in March.”
He stressed that despite the dis- concerting persistent increase in food prices, the people must acknowledge the conscious efforts of President Bola Tinubu to rejig the economy and ensure food security through massive investment in agriculture. According to him, “in this regard, we particularly commend the administration for funding the ongoing dry season cultivation of 120,000 hectares of farmland for the production of wheat. “This aggressive push to boost food production is a confirmation of the President’s seriousness on his declaration of State of Emergency on Food Security on 13th July 2023.
To this end, we also commend the Jigawa state government for allocating 80,000 hectares of land to the Presidential initiative on wheat, and also thank the government of Kano and Kaduna states for making available the remaining 40,000 hectares that will make the exercise a tremendous success.
“However, we are not happy and wish to publicly register our displeasure over the lackadaisical attitude of some state governors to the Presidential commitment to cultivate 500,000 hectares of land, to grow rice, cassava, maize, wheat, millet, and other staple crops across the country. “Recall that in our last engagement with you, we posited that the cultiva- tion of 500,000 hectares will among other things, boost food production and supply, force down the high prices of foodstuffs in the market, and ensure food security in the country.”
He said further that unfortunately, their investigation showed that many state governments are yet to make available their own portion of farm lands for the exercise. “Therefore, we call on all the state governments that are yet to provide farmlands for the programme to do so, as quickly as possible, because time is of the essence as the country is in dire need of massive food production at this crucial moment. “Meanwhile, the first quarter of the year has witnessed commendable strides in the oil and gas sector.
These include the domiciling of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) revenue account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has facilitated a truly single treasury account platform for the country’s oil earnings. “In addition, in a continued upward trajectory witnessed in oil and gas exploration activities, oil rig count, an index with which upstream activities are measured, surged by 23 percent year -on-year (YoY) to 16 rigs in February 2024. The increased rigs activities have resulted in higher crude oil production inclusive of condensates averaging 1.65 million barrels a day as per last quarter.
“While this has positive prospects for accretion to our foreign reserve, we estimate that crude oil production should increase to 1.8 million barrels a day, which is more than the 1.78 million crude oil production target projected in the 2024 federal budget, by the end of the second quarter of 2024, he said.
