By Kingston Magare 8-7-2025
Monday’s situation report on Nigeria’s economy by the International Monetary Fund appears to have unsettled the administation of President Bola Tinubu.
In the report the IMF said the Tinubu government was not doing enough to curb inflation, insecurity, inadequate power supply and lack of investiment on human capacity and infrastructure.
But speaking on Channels TV Tuesday Tinubu’s Economic Affairs adviser, Tope Fasua, said the report is akin to heckling by the most respected world financial organisation.
“This administration under President Tinubu has done some of the deepest reforms that we have seen in a while. We only just got the tax bills signed into law—bills that offer relief to low-income earners and double the tax threshold for small businesses,” Mr. Fasua said.
“We haven’t even allowed those measures to settle, yet we’re hearing all sorts of very fatalistic statements from different places, including, unfortunately, the IMF
“Sometimes one wants to think they go into overdrive—almost every week or every two to three days, there’s a statement on Nigeria. At the end of the day, it leaves everyone in a state of confusion,” he said.
Fasua warned that the IMF’s statements risk pitching the Nigerian people against the government, saying they lack nuance and fail to consider the depth of the economic problems inherited.
“Give us a break; let us be able to know where we are going before coming at us at every angle and generally throwing us off whack. It’s like a house that is completely dilapidated.
“And we’re being asked to provide full comfort in two years after removing the roof and working on the foundation. That’s not realistic,” he said.
not a fantasist.
“Sometimes these statements feel overrated. We should invest in collecting our own data and stop depending solely on Bretton Woods institutions. Let’s build our own capacity and data credibility,” he said.