The administration of President Bola Tinubu has admitted that it inherited a bad economy with an unacceptably high unemployment rate and skyrocketing inflation.
In a press briefing after the first Federal Executive Council meeting, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun said that the government met an economy with inflation at 24% and a continuously falling per capita.
“Per capita had fallen steadily, inflation is at 24%, unemployment is high, you know they are rebasing how it’s calculated,” Edun said. “Either way, it is high and youth unemployment is even unacceptably high, these are the key metrics that we have met.”
Despite the challenges, Edun assured Nigerians that the government would not rely on borrowing to fix the economy. “We are not in a position to borrow money at this time,” he said.
“The emphasis is on how to create a macroeconomic environment where both local and foreign investors would invest and increase production.”
The minister also said that the government had identified eight priority areas for economic growth, including agriculture, manufacturing, and infrastructure, to be deliver in the next three years.
President Tinubu has charged the ministers to roll out policies and programs to improve the economy.
