President Bola Tinubu has said that despite the headwinds in the polity, his administration was engaging the world diplomatically assuring that the government would defeat terrorism in the country.
The President gave the assurance in his remarks ahead of the commencement of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting he chaired at the Presidential Villa on Thursday.
Tinubu, who spoke immediately after the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Economy, Wale Edun updated the Council on gains made by the administration, said “The most important thing is the fact that despite the political headwind and the fear of our people, we will continue to engage with our partners. The success of the 2.3 billion bond over subscribed is the most at this stage.
“So the task ahead is immense. We are engaging the world diplomatically, and we assure all of you that we will defeat terrorism in country.
The task ahead is immense but we are resolved to move forward with unity and purpose, guided by renewed hope agenda to build a prosperous, inclusive and resilient Nigeria.”
Edun began his comments thanked the cabinet members for their support during his recent illness and reeked out indices to indicate that government reforms were working.
“In Q2 2025, Nigeria’s GDP grew by 4.23% the highest in a decade outside the covid rebound. 13 sectors recorded growth above 7% up from nine in the previous quarter, showing broad based resilience. The industrial sector nearly doubled its growth from 3.72% to 7.45% reflecting rising productivity and investor confidence. Inflation eased to 18% in December, while, as we know, foreign exchange reserves topped 43 billion, and our trade surplus topped 7.4 trillion. Clear examples of macro economic stability.
As the consumer spending basket published earlier this year shows, our citizens now spend maybe about half of the income on basic needs, food, shelter and clothing, and as compared with almost 90% previously, this signals a country moving from subsistence towards productivity and indeed affluence.
Nigeria’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force, (FATF) gray list marks a major milestone in strengthening our financial integrity and confidence. At the recent World Bank IMF annual meetings, global leaders commended our reforms, our progress and the revised IMF growth forecast up to nearly 4% and improved credit ratings. A key takeaway is the urgency to mobilize domestic resources and provide investment to finance infrastructure and all importantly, job rich growth,” he said.
Edun continued “Yesterday’s hugely successful 2.3 5 billion euro-bond issuance, in which the order book peaked at over $13 billion is a testament to continued investor confidence in our country and our reform agenda and Mr President’s leadership despite the political headwinds which we are all aware of, the market, shrugged off those political considerations and focused on the economic fundamentals of Nigeria.
“Sir, we remain committed to your vision of a $1 trillion Naira economy by 2030 but to achieve this, we must accelerate output to 7% per annum growth by 2027 not just as an economic target, but as a moral imperative to end Poverty.
“Critical to attaining this growth trajectory will be attracting a necessary investment into our economy. With public investment at only 5% of GDP, we must urgently develop investment ready projects across so many sectors that will crowd in large scale, domestic and external capital, direct investment in the economy by Nigerians as well as by foreigners.
“Ministers overseeing key sectors, for example, infrastructure, mining, education, Health, Agriculture, Blue economy, digital innovation arts and culture, must work with the sub national governments, the states, to identify and package projects.”
