The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, has said that the administration of President Bola Tinubu inherited a bad economy from President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration with inflation at 24 per cent.
Edu disclosed this on Monday in Abuja while briefing journalists at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
His words: “Per capita has fallen steadily, inflation is at 24 per cent, unemployment is high; you know they are rebasing the way in which it’s calculated. Either way, it is high and youth unemployment is even unacceptably high.
“These are the key metrics that we have met. We met a bad economy and the promise of Mr President is to make it better.”
The minister also said that the federal government was not in a position to borrow money at this time.
Edu noted that the emphasis is on how to create a macro-economic environment where both local and foreign investors will invest and increase production.
He assured Nigerians that the Tinubu administration would not rely on borrowing and that he had pledged to be transparent, honest and accountable to the people.
Giving an insight of the FEC meeting, Edun said the President congratulated everybody and emphasised the high expectations of Nigerians and also encouraged them to be bold, courageous, innovative and to act with urgency in delivering a better life to all Nigerians.
Be added: “Essentially, we went through an exercise of looking at where things stood, regarding the economy, the growth rate, the exchange rate, inflation, unemployment and so on.
“The overriding conclusion is that we’re not where we should be and we also examined the President’s eight-point agenda; that is the eight priority areas for moving the Nigerian economy forward and for delivering to Nigerians and those are basically food security; ending poverty, economic growth and job creation, access to capital, particularly consumer credit, inclusivity in all its dimensions, particularly as regards youths and women, improving security, improving the playing field on which people and particularly companies operate, rule of law, and of course, fighting corruption.’’