Revenue Drive: FG Tasks Capital Market Operators With $100bn Investments

The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has called for massive investments in the capital market and the private sector to support revenue mobilisation for 2025 budget implementation.

The Minister made the call over the weekend during an investiture ceremony of Fellow of the Capital Market Academics of Nigeria FCMAN on him by the Association of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria (ACMAN) led by its President, Prof. Uche Uwaleke.

A statement issued by Osagie Jacobs J.I, Director in the ministry, quoted Bagudu as saying that investments to the tune of $100 billion should come from the capital market and the private sector to build the Nigerian economy.

The minister appreciated the efforts of capital market experts, emphasising the significance of their contributions to ongoing interventions to transform the nation’s economy.

He, however, decried that the capital market in the country right now was inadequate to sustain the economy. He explained that the Ministry’s mandate of coordinating the process for the preparation, implementation and monitoring of the national economic plans was being carried out with the assistance of its agencies; the Nigerian Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER), the Center for Management Development (CMD) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to him, “we need capital, mobilisation and orientation of citizens, as what tax revenue can’t fund, capital market can fund”.

He emphasised the National Development Plan and the Nigeria Agenda 2050 as the target for development trajectory.

Earlier, the President of ACMAN, Prof. Uwaleke, explained that the association, comprising professors and senior academics from Nigerian universities with specialisation in financial market research, banking and business administration had taken steps to strengthen the bond between academia and industry.

“Today, the association welcomes captains of industry to strengthen the bond between the town and the gown,” Uwaleke said. “We look forward to your inaugural lecture, which is a very important condition for the award to you sir,” he added.