Market News

By Ruth Olurounbi and Anthony Osae-Brown

(Bloomberg) -- Nigerian President Bola Tinubu defended sweeping economic reforms implemented since he took power in May 2023 as necessary to prevent a national crisis.

“We were spending our future, we were spending our generation’s fortune,” he told a rare media briefing in Lagos, the commercial capital, on Monday. “Why should you have expenditure that you do not have revenues for?”

The leader of Africa’s most populous nation has undertaken a number of measures, including devaluing the naira, abolishing a complex multiple exchange-rate system and scrapping costly gasoline subsidies since taking office.

‘Father Christmas’

Tinubu said that Nigeria had been playing “Father Christmas” to its neighbors by subsidizing gasoline. “I do not have any regrets whatsoever in removing the subsidies,” he said. 

While the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have welcomed the reforms, they has triggered soaring inflation and led to a cost-of-living crisis, worsening the plight of millions of Nigerians who live below the poverty line.

In August, demonstrators took to the streets in frustration over the tough living conditions in protests that were met by deadly force by police. 

More from Tinubu’s briefing:

• The president said he will not back down on his proposed tax changes, but signaled he could make concessions on value added tax to advance the overall measures, without being specific.
• Importing 2,000 tractors into Nigeria to encourage mechanized farming and increase agricultural output that can be sold for export.
• Tinubu says he does not believe in price controls and the market should be allowed to determine prices.

(Updates with additional comments from Tinubu during media briefing)