By Ayo Ayodele
A policy advocacy group, the Independent Media and Policy Initiatives (IMPI), has credited President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with engineering a major economic turnaround through what it described as “tools of economic progressivism.”
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Dr. Omoniyi Akinsiju, IMPI said the Tinubu administration had successfully steered Nigeria away from decades of profligacy and entrenched oligarchic control of public resources.
The group argued that before the reforms initiated in May 2023, Nigeria’s economy was dominated by a small network of political elites, military officers and business moguls who controlled state resources, particularly in the oil sector. According to IMPI, the fuel subsidy regime had become a conduit for corruption, while multiple foreign exchange windows enabled arbitrage and drained government finances.
IMPI noted that by the time Tinubu assumed office, Nigeria was spending about 97 per cent of its total revenue on debt servicing, a situation it described as “disastrous.” It also referenced data showing that crude oil and gas exports peaked at $93.89 billion in 2011 but declined significantly after 2014, contributing to fiscal strain.
The group maintained that the administration’s reforms—including fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification—have unlocked the grip of entrenched interests and placed the economy on a path of stability.
Highlighting what it termed ideology-driven reforms, IMPI listed fiscal policy and taxation reforms, redistributive spending, estate and wealth taxes, labour and wealth protection measures, monetary and financial reforms, infrastructure development, and increased public investment as key tools deployed by the administration.
According to the policy group, allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) rose significantly in 2025, with the three tiers of government sharing over ₦33.27 trillion in the first eleven months of the year, representing a 30 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024. The surge, it said, was driven largely by subsidy removal and exchange rate reforms.
IMPI further stated that inflation has moderated sharply, dropping from a peak of 34.6 per cent in November 2024 to 15.10 per cent in January 2026, marking over nine consecutive months of disinflation. Food inflation, it added, fell to 8.89 per cent year-on-year in January 2026—its first single-digit reading in more than a decade.
The group also pointed to a narrowing gap between the official and parallel foreign exchange markets, which it said had shrunk from 60 per cent to about two per cent. As of February 24, 2026, the naira was trading at about ₦1,349.24 to the dollar at the official market and between ₦1,355 and ₦1,420 in the parallel market.
IMPI concluded that the naira is currently ranked as the world’s second-best performing currency this year, gaining more than seven per cent against the US dollar, and insisted that the administration has “taken Nigeria out of the woods” through sustained economic reforms.