Tinubu’s reforms have rebuilt Nigeria’s “fiscal stability”; next is “economic growth” – Innovation Village

Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele stood in Abuja on August 19 and made the government’s fullest case yet that Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms prevented a deeper crisis, rather than merely taking Nigeria through a painful adjustment.

Presenting what the ministry called “Nigeria’s Reform Scorecard: The Benefits, Costs & Harm Prevented”, Oyedele pointed to figures that are broadly verifiable. Nigeria saved ₦15.8 trillion in subsidy and foreign-exchange costs between June 2023 and December 2025, generated ₦20.4 trillion in incremental government resources, built gross reserves to $52.5 billion, and narrowed the foreign-exchange premium from more than 60% to below 5%.

Reuters reached a similar conclusion in separate reporting, arguing that the reforms helped Nigeria avoid a more severe economic crisis.

Nine days earlier, another Reuters report described what that stabilisation looks like from inside a two-room flat in Abuja. Grace Adama, a health NGO worker earning nearly twice Nigeria’s minimum wage, said her salary now lasts about a week before rent, electricity and food consume it.

Both accounts can be true. Nigeria can be fiscally stronger, better stocked with foreign exchange, and less exposed to an imminent balance-of-payments crisis, while households remain under severe pressure. That is the real tension in the reform story.

The “Case” the government is making

Stripped of politics, the scorecard’s argument is specific and testable. Oyedele said 27 states could not reliably pay salaries in May 2023 and that, without reform, at least 30 could have faced the same problem by 2026. He said debt service as a share of federal revenue has fallen from roughly 100% in 2022 to an estimated 50% this year.

Nigeria’s current account also moved from a $1.21 billion deficit,…