Use higher revenues to improve standard of living, Tinubu tells States

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has welcomed the World Bank’s latest assessment of Nigeria’s economy, describing the findings as validations that his administration’s reforms are yielding results, while pledging greater attention to lower food prices, job creation and improved living conditions.

In a statement issued Sunday in Abuja by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the president urged state governments to use their increased revenues prudently and give priority to projects that improve Nigerians’ welfare, particularly healthcare and education.

“I urge state governments to use their higher revenues more prudently and prioritise projects that improve the living standards of Nigerians, and the health and education of our people,” he said.

President Tinubu’s charge came as a response to the World Bank’s October 2026 Nigeria Development Update, titled Beyond the Federal Purse: How Higher Revenues Reshaped State Priorities, which, according to the statement, reported stronger economic growth, increased government revenues and a stabilisation of poverty.

He said the findings provided further evidence that the removal of petrol subsidy, unification of the foreign exchange market and tighter fiscal discipline were putting the economy on a firmer footing.

“These findings confirm that the difficult but necessary decisions to remove the petrol subsidy, unify the foreign exchange market and strengthen fiscal discipline have raised revenues, stabilised the economy and created fiscal space for every tier of government to invest in its people,” he said.

The president, however, acknowledged that the gains must translate more fully into improvements in household welfare.

“The dividends of reform are becoming visible. But more work remains to ensure they fully translate into better living standards for every household, starting with lower food prices and decent jobs for our young people,” he said.

According to the statement, the World Bank found that Nigeria’s poverty rate had stabilised for the first time since 2019, with a gradual decline expected as economic growth outpaces population growth.

The report put economic growth at 4.2 per cent in the first half of 2026, compared with 3.9 per cent in the corresponding period of 2025, despite the effects of the Middle East conflict.

It projected growth to average at least 4.4 per cent between 2026 and 2028.

On inflation, the report recorded a decline from 27.6 per cent in January 2025 to 15.2 per cent in December of the same year.

Although higher global fuel prices associated with the Middle East conflict had slowed the downward trend, the Bank projected that inflation would ease to about 12 per cent by 2028.

Nigeria’s external position also improved, with the current account surplus rising to $12 billion, equivalent to seven per cent of gross domestic product, in the first half of 2026, from $8.6 billion a year earlier.

Gross external reserves increased from $45.5 billion at the end of 2025 to $53.8 billion at the end of August 2026.

The statement said reforms introduced since 2023 had increased federation revenues by 69 per cent in real terms between 2023 and 2025, with states emerging as the largest beneficiaries.

States increased capital spending by 151 per cent in real terms over the same period, directing most of the additional expenditure towards roads and other transport infrastructure, agriculture, energy and housing.

The report found that 29 of the 33 states assessed shifted expenditure towards economic infrastructure, while real social spending per person increased in all but one state.

It further said the Internally Generated Revenue grew in real terms in 31 of 35 states, while 21 states reduced their debt-to-GDP ratios between 2021 and 2025.

Nigeria’s overall public debt was projected to decline from 40 per cent of GDP in 2025 to 38.1 per cent in 2026.

President Tinubu said his administration would sustain the reforms and intensify measures to ensure that economic gains reach more Nigerians under the Renewed Hope Agenda.

He pledged to expand targeted cash transfers, which he said had already reached more than 10 million households, accelerate the deployment of compressed natural gas and raise agricultural productivity.

Tinubu also promised improved access to affordable healthcare and quality education.

The president commended the Economic Management Team, led by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, state governors and other stakeholders for their cooperation in implementing the reforms.

“I assure Nigerians that the best is yet to come under the Renewed Hope Agenda 2.0,” he said.

…Presidency slams Atiku’s fuel subsidy plan

Meanwhile, the Presidency has dismissed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s proposed production subsidy on petrol as “a dangerous mathematical fantasy wrapped in political deceit.”

The former VP who is   the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2027 General Elections, recently unfolded his plan to restore fuel subsidy removed by the Tinubu administration since coming on board.

Also on the 30-day discount on petrol by the NNPC Retail and a price modulation framework, the ex-VP described it as a “panic-driven gimmick,”  and that Tinubu copied his economic homework without the production subsidy that made it work.

 Dismissing the response as a ruse, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, in a statement Sunday titled ‘Atiku’s Demagoguery in the Face of Tinubu’s Logical Policies,’  described Atiku’s  recent press conference in Abuja as “a seminal example of shallow, election-laced demagoguery.”

Referencing  the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, as saying on Channels Television that Nigeria produces about 1.8 million barrels of crude per day for a population of over 200 million, he, however, noted that the federal government does not directly own all of that oil.

While arguing that under joint ventures and production sharing contracts signed over decades, it said production costs, royalties and profit-oil sharing ratios “severely reduce the equity crude available to the state,” leaving fewer than 700,000 barrels per day of unencumbered free crude.

Dare said: “To propose a blanket ‘targeted production subsidy’ on crude without the physical, unencumbered volume to back it up is pure economic illiteracy,” Dare said, adding that, “It invites the very opacity, fraudulent round-tripping, and fiscal haemorrhage that crippled Nigeria for decades under the old subsidy regime.”

The Presidency further said that refineries such as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery need more feedstock than the state can freely supply without breaching international supply contracts, which is why Dangote and other domestic refiners also import crude.

The statement also rejected a comparison of crude allocation with farm produce like garri or cassava, describing it as a misrepresentation of  commodity markets.

Dare also pointed to the United States, which it said produces over 10 million barrels per day for 330 million people but sells petroleum at market prices, and to Qatar, which it said had to cut energy subsidies significantly despite its large gas reserves and a population of under 500,000.

On the claim that the NNPC Retail discount amounted to a return to subsidy, it clarified that NNPC had offered the discount to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence anniversary and had now offered to extend it by another 30 days.

He said: “When NNPC Retail agrees to sell fuel at landing cost for 30 days during an unprecedented global crude price spike, it is not writing checks to opaque import cartels.

“It is leveraging its corporate balance sheet to absorb short-term global volatility, backed directly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

According to him, the negotiated interim ceiling of N1,350 per litre on ex-gantry costs was “a structural shock absorber, not price control.”

Under it, the Presidency said, refiners and importers absorb short-term cost spikes above the ceiling and recover them later when crude prices cool or the exchange rate adjusts.

The ceiling is reviewed monthly based on published cost audits, the statement noted.

“N1,400 today and N1,400 tomorrow provides far greater economic stability than N1,500 today and N1,300 tomorrow,” Dare further stated, stressing that erratic fuel prices trigger transport fare hikes that rarely fall back.

He listed other measures the administration had taken as  state-backed strategic energy reserve; a rapid rollout of compressed natural gas, which, according to him,  “is 60 to 70 per cent cheaper than petrol; naira-for-crude supply to domestic refineries; windfall taxes on energy operators who gouge consumers, with the proceeds earmarked for transport vouchers and minimum-wage support; and enforcement of the 2025 tax reform laws to dismantle illegal road levies.”

According to him, the removal of the petrol subsidy and the unification of the exchange rate had ended a multi-trillion-naira drain on public funds, which he said now flows to the 36 states and local governments through FAAC allocations.

Fuel queues, he also said, had been eliminated and the gap between the official and parallel exchange rates closed.

On Atiku’s reported description of Tinubu as a “dull student,” the Presidency declared: “It is sheer absurdity that a man who graduated from a school of hygiene dares to call a first-class accounting graduate a dull student…

“The Nigerian electorate is far too sophisticated to trade long-term national economic security for Atiku’s shallow, short-term demagoguery.”