By Dada Olusegun
On May 29, 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stood on the presidential podium at Eagle Square to kickstart a momentous journey to hope shortly after taking the reins of power as the 16th President of Nigeria. From the first minute, President Tinubu was not under any illusion as to the enormity of the task ahead and the urgency it requires.
Therefore, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in keeping with his boldest campaign promise immediately went ahead to announce the removal of fuel subsidy and followed it up with a directive to the monetary authority to harmonise foreign exchange rates and bring to an end the era of multiple exchange rates in the official foreign exchange market.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu knew that these two major policy announcements would shake the foundations of the Nigerian economy and test the resilience of the Nigerian people but he understood that there was no other shortcut to really remove the shackles that have held Nigeria’s economic wings bound for decades and preventing our economy from learning how to fly. As a courageous leader with a clear long-term vision, he took these hard decisions nonetheless.
Predictably, the cost of transportation rose as a result of the subsidy removal with the knock-on effects on prices of commodities and inflation. However, the President as part of a multi-faceted efforts to mitigate the impact of the fuel subsidy removal on transport cost established the Presidential CNG Initiative. This initiative aims to drive an energy transition from PMS to the use of cheaper compressed natural gas (CNG) as fuel.
The tilt towards CNG as vehicular fuel was very deliberate and meant to unlock the latent economic goldmine, that a CNG revolution will bring about considering the fact that Nigeria is basically a gas nation with natural gas occurring in 30 states of the federation. Crucially, CNG requires minimal processing and is far cheaper than PMS. This Presidential CNG Initiative is progressing to the rollout stage with the first set of 200 locally-assembled CNG-powered buses, 2,500 CNG-powered tricycles and 20,000 conversion kits set to be launched in the coming days.
CNG filling stations are also springing up across major cities in addition to conversion workshops where vehicle owners can install CNG conversion kits to make their vehicles CNG-enabled. The entire CNG ecosystem is a new industry altogether which is creating jobs and increasing productivity. In fact, the private sector has already keyed into the CNG revolution with over $50 million in actual investments in refuelling stations, conversion centres, and mother stations. To further show his commitment to the CNG revolution, President Tinubu directed that only procurement requests from MDAs for CNG-powered vehicles would be approved henceforth.
The other short-term interventions put forward by President Tinubu to provide succour to vulnerable Nigerians in the post-subsidy era include a N35,000 wage award for all federal public servants; disbursement of N50,000 grants to one million nano-scale SMEs including petty traders, artisans, food vendors etc; N75 billion intervention package for big manufacturing firms and other direct interventions.
Beyond the post-subsidy interventions President Bola Tinubu put together, his administration settled down to begin the hard work of methodical reforms across many sectors starting with the setting up of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy & Tax Reforms with the general mandate of recommending far-reaching fiscal policies and tax reforms that will better position the economy for growth and make the business environment in Nigeria more friendly. The Committee led by Mr. Taiwo Oyedele has made a couple of landmark policy recommendations and proposed fiscal reforms including an unprecedented tax exemption for 95% of Nigeria’s informal sector and recommendation to merge over 200 taxes being paid by Nigerian businesses into just 10 taxes.
The committee is working to transmit its policy recommendations to the national assembly by September which will include National Tax and Borrowing Policies and new proposals to amend the Constitution, which would take effect between 2025 and 2026. This important groundwork to harmonise taxes and bring about bold fiscal reforms may seem invisible or intangible but they are very critical for the kind of sustainable economic transformation that President Tinubu is anticipating. Already, the twin policies of removal of subsidy and harmonisation of foreign exchange rate has led to a remarkable increase in revenue inflows into the federation account.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR ACROSS SECTORS
To put into clear perspectives, the achievements of the Tinubu administration in one year, I will attempt to briefly look at the journey so far across key sectors of the economy and governance structure.
Infrastructure
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a man of infrastructure. He has left no one in doubt about his commitment to tackle headlong the infrastructural deficit facing Nigeria. On Sunday, the President brought the down the full weight of his presidential support on the 700km Lagos-Calabar coastal road project and associated spurs – the 1000km Badagry-Sokoto highway and the Enugu-Abakaliki-Ogoja road which connects the South East to the coastal road. “We will do this road”, the President assured the Works Minister and indeed all Nigerians.
The President also commissioned the new-look 3rd mainland which was rehabilitated by his administration alongside other federal bridges in Lagos. He also commissioned the highly critical Apapa-Oworosonki-Ojota expressway reconstructed using concrete pavement technology by the Dangote Group under the infrastructure tax credit scheme initiated by the Buhari administration. The President also virtually flagged off reconstruction of 330 other road and bridge projects across the country.
Construction is going on non-stop on hundreds of existing and new road projects across the country including the Abuja-Kano expressway, Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, Enugu-Onitsha expressway, Abuja-Lokoja expressway, Benin-Lokoja expressway, East-West road, Makurdi-Otukpo-9th Mile Road, Kano-Kazaure-Kongolam highway and many others. The FCT is now a construction with many completed road projects to be commissioned by the President over the next four days to mark the first anniversary of President Tinubu .
For rail infrastructure, work is ongoing at the Kano-Kaduna section of the Lagos-Kano standard gauge railway. President Tinubu recently met the Chairman of China Railway Construction Corporation and conveyed his determination to mobilise funding from wherever possible to complete the Ibadan-Abuja leg of the Lagos-Kano standard gauge railway. For the narrow gauge railway, the Tinubu administration acquired more trains for the Lagos-Kano route with commercial operations set to restart soon. The route will have stops at Ibadan, Osogbo, Offa, Ilorin, Mokwa, Minna, Kaduna, Zaria and Kano.
Track laying was completed few weeks ago on the 62km Port Harcourt-Aba section of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri narrow gauge railway with commercial operations launched on 1st May, 2024. Track laying is continuing on the 181km section between Aba and Enugu. It will continue until it gets to Maiduguri through Benue. The Kano-Maradi standard gauge railway project is equally ongoing. The Abuja metro line will also roar back to life as commercial operations commences on May 30th.
Meanwhile, in order to mobilise the amount of funding required to ensure that infrastructural projects in Nigeria would no longer suffer abandonment or huge delays due to funding challenges, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu established the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund (RHIDF) with a seed capital target of N20 trillion. This fund would replace the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) domiciled in the NSIA before now. The RHIDF will fund infrastructure projects in critical areas of agriculture, transportation, ports, aviation, energy, healthcare, and education.
Education
In fulfilment of his long-term promise to establish a student loan scheme to help students from poor backgrounds to access education loan and fund their education, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu within his first year in office made sure that the landmark programme was up and running with the establishment of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), which is backed by law and even expanded to include students in vocational institutions who may want to acquire one skill or the other instead of tertiary education.
President Bola Tinubu over the course of his first year in office has strived to restore industrial harmony in public federal tertiary institutions by paying four months salaries to ASUU members out of the 8 months they were on strike. The President also ensured a massive increase in the funding to Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) from N320 billion in 2023 to N684 billion in 2024 to increase their ability to provide more direct infrastructural interventions to public tertiary institutions.
Power
In the power sector, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s one year in office has been spent carrying out bold reforms that will finally allow the power sector to attract much needed fresh investments across the electricity value chain. In February, 2024 the President signed into law the Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024. This Act is historic and landmark in many sense as it broke the monopoly in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution at the national level.
The Act in essence guaranteed the de-centralisation of Nigeria’s electricity generation, transmission, and distribution at the national level and authorised states, companies, and individuals to generate, transmit and distribute electricity. Under the Act, States are empowered, upon creating an electricity regulatory commission backed by law, to issue licences to private investors who in turn would be permitted to set-up and operate mini-grids and power plants within the State. Around 12 states have made moves to have electricity regulatory powers transferred to them in line with the new Act.
President Tinubu’s administration in the past year also had to contend with declining power supply across the country due to gas supply constraints linked to the twin problem of pipeline vandalisation in the Niger Delta as well as liquidity issues. The liquidity issues stems from the huge debts owed to the Gas companies and the GenCos as a result of unfunded electricity subsidy by the federal government as well as payment shortages by the DisCos. The debts to the gas companies was $1.3 billion while the debt to GenCos was N1.3 trillion.
President Tinubu had to look for both short-term and long-term solutions approved gradual payment of the over N3 trillion owed to the GenCos and GasCos. With confidence restored and vandalised pipelines back on stream, the gas supply constraints eased significantly with the end result being improved power generation and supply across the country. The completed Zungeru Hydro Power Plant was also connected to the national grid last month, which added additional 700mw to the grid.
The Tinubu administration is also proceeding with the Siemens power deal started by President Buhari with the first phase currently at over 80% completion. This phase involves deploying ten (10) power transformers and ten (10) mobile substations across the country. President Tinubu during a bilateral meeting with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) further signed a Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) agreement between Nigeria and Germany aimed to add additional 12,000mw to the national grid with Siemens AG as the contractor.
Consumer Credit
President Bola Tinubu within his first year in office has equally established a landmark consumer credit scheme and incorporated the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP) to drive this process. This is the fulfillment of a major campaign promise by the President to establish a sustainable credit scheme, which allows Nigerians to purchase goods and services without having to put down all the money required down at once. Already 1.6 million applications have been received by CREDICORP in the pilot phase.
Monetary Reforms
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed a new board of the Central Bank of Nigeria led by Dr. Yemi Cardoso as Governor of the Bank. The CBN in the last one year of the Tinubu administration has embarked on far reaching monetary reforms, which has restored some form of stability to the monetary landscape of the economy. Backlogs of foreign exchange owed businesses were cleared while the CBN also implemented far-reaching reforms to bring sanity to the foreign exchange market and reduce the ability of artificial forces to dictate the exchange rate of the Naira.
Passport
The past one year has equally seen an unprecedented transformation in the passport application process and ease of getting a Nigerian passport. The era of backlogs of passport application stretching to months was brought to an end by the Interior Minister who ensured the Immigration Service cleared a backlog of 204,332 passports in less than three weeks and reduced the need for physical presence during passport application to just coming for biometric capture.
Agriculture
The Tinubu administration has also in the past one year in office laid the groundwork for a sustainable improvement in agricultural productivity and ensuring food security. The federal government launched the dry season farming programme with the cultivation of 118,657 hectares of wheat in 15 states while 107,429 wheat farmers were supported with inputs such as fertilisers, agrochemicals, and free seeds. This resulted in output of 474,628 metric tonnes of wheat.
The federal government had earlier released 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities from the Federal Government’s strategic grain reserves to the National Emergency Management Agency for distribution to Nigerians as part of the post-subsidy interventions. 58,500 metric tonnes of milled rice was also distributed to the 36 states and the FCT to dampen escalating prices of rice.
The Tinubu administration also carried out the distribution of 60,432MT of improved seeds, 887,255MT seedlings, 138 value kits, 501,726 litres of agrochemicals, 62,328.5MT of inorganic fertilizers, 1,000kg fungicide, and 33,200 equipment to farmers across different value chains to enhance crop production. In addition 2.15 million bags of fertilisers are being distributed to farmers nationwide free of charge for the wet farming season. 760 tonnes of poultry feed and 70 tonnes of ruminant feed were also distributed to smallholder farmers in 15 states through the state governments.
The Tinubu administration has also initiated an agricultural mechanisation programme and signed an MoU with John Deere and Tata Africa to assemble in-country and supply 10,000 tractors with implements and accessories at 2,000 units yearly, as well as 100 units of combine harvesters to support agriculture production. The first set of these tractors are set to be launched soon. The federal government also secured a €995 million deal between with the Brazilian Government, and the German Deutsch Bank Group to finance a Green Imperative Programme in Nigeria which will see the creation of mechanisation hubs across the 774 LGAs.
Housing
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last one year has moved to unlock opportunities in the housing sector with ongoing reforms in the mortgage industry aimed at making it easier for Nigerians to buy houses without making bulk payments. 30-year mortgage loans from FMBN at single digit interest rates as well as rent-to-own schemes are part of these initiatives. The President also launched the first phase of the Renewed Hope cities with the construction of 1,250 units having commenced in Katsina, Kano, Yobe, and Gombe states.
Last December, contracts for the construction of 3,500 housing units across 13 states was awarded by the Tinubu administration. This includes 500 units in Kano and 250 units each in the following twelve states: Katsina, Sokoto, Yobe, Gombe, Nasarawa, Benue, Osun, Oyo, Abia, Ebonyi, Delta, and Akwa Ibom. In February 2024 President Tinubu flagged off construction of a 3,112 housing unit project in Karsana, Abuja.
Federalism
The man Bola Ahmed Tinubu has always been a strong advocate of a truly functioning federalism and as President in the past one year, he has moved to give the federating units more powers. Building on the restructuring that started under the Buhari administration. President Tinubu in anticipation of a major constitutional amendment has started the conversation on establishment of state police, a change in the revenue sharing formula in favour of the states.
As part of practical effort to improve our existing federalism, the Tinubu administration through the Attorney-General of the federation sued the 36 states to the Supreme Court on the very critical issue of local government autonomy. These are bold and courageous steps and we are still in year one.
Health
In the health sector, the administration of President Bola Tinubu is breaking new grounds as the federal government encourages Nigerian manufacturers to produce essential items such as syringes, needles, generic pharmaceuticals, test kits, and long-lasting insecticide-treated nets for malaria. A Brazilian firm is set to establish a US$240 million generic manufacturing plant in Nigeria. Three firms are also set to produce test kits locally, with one already operational in Lagos and two more on the way.
As part of federal government’s intervention in the primary healthcare sector, about N260 billion has been disbursed to states from the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) under the Tinubu administration to refurbish the 8,809 primary healthcare centers across the country. Federal hospitals have executed 201 specific infrastructure projects in the last one year of the Tinubu administration in addition to the procurement of 179 specific pieces of important medical equipment shared among the six geopolitical zones.
The Tinubu administration has equally attracted external funding into the health sector. In the last one year, it has signed a $232 million grant with GFATM, $200 million with a philanthropic foundation and expecting an additional $60 million in grants. $150 million grant was recently announced by the Gavi Alliance, in addition to US$1 billion facility governed by MOU signed with Afreximbank to unlock the healthcare value chains in Nigeria.
Solid Minerals
In the solid mineral sector, Nigeria has moved with tremendous speed in the last one year of Tinubu administration with a clear mining roadmap and reforms. The battle against illegal mining received a bite with the creation of a new security architecture specifically tasked to secure mining sites and combat illegal mining. 2,200 Mines Marshals were commissioned from the NSCDC with more men expected to be seconded from the police and the military.
Nigeria has 42 billion barrels of Bitumen, the second largest deposit in the world, yet we import bitumen for road construction. The Tinubu administration, to reverse this trend, recently issued 18 exploration licenses and 16 mining licenses to bidders. The President is also commissioned the biggest lithium factory in Nigeria, which has capacity to process 4,000 metric tonnes of lithium per day. As part of the new focus on value addition solid minerals mined in Nigeria, the federal government has attract investors to build Lithium-Ion Battery manufacturing and processing factories in Nigeria.
Tech and Innovation
One of the priority areas of the President’s Renewed Hope agenda is technological innovations with young people at the heart. Over the past one year, the federal government launched an ambitious tech programme known as the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme, which is aimed at building Nigeria’s technical talent backbone to power our digital economy and position Nigeria as a net talent exporter. The pilot phase has trained 30,000 fellows with focus on 12 technical skills. The second phase is ongoing and 270,000 fellows for the second cohort of the program has been selected.
Oil and Gas
The oil and gas landscape in Nigeria witnessed huge shake up in the last one year of President Bola Tinubu’s administration starting with seismic effects of the removal of fuel subsidy by the President. The President has backed up the full liberalisation of the oil and gas market with some bold executive orders including the Oil and Gas Companies (Tax Incentives, Exemption, Remission, etc.) Order, 2024; Presidential Directive on Local Content Compliance Requirements, 2024; and the Presidential Directive on Reduction of Petroleum Sector Contracting Costs and Timelines.
The Tinubu administration also achieved mechanical completion of the first phase of the Port Harcourt refinery. In the past few weeks the refinery is undergoing regulatory compliance tests that must happen in every refinery before you start refining operations. The Port Harcourt refinery has already stockpiled millions of barrels of crude oil in anticipation of a possible commencement of full refining operations in July. In Kaduna refinery, rehabilitation work is at 40% completion state while Warri refinery is approaching 100% mechanical completion.
Within the last one year, the federal government has provided tremendous support to help the massive Dangote Refinery commence full commercial operations including guaranteeing crude oil supply from the NNPCL and its JV partners. Already the Dangote refinery has started supplying the local market with diesel and aviation fuel with PMS from Dangote set to finally hit the local market next month. The price of diesel and aviation fuel has been reduced significantly by Dangote.
In the gas sector, over the past one year, the Tinubu administration has been aggressively pursuing the Decade of Gas Initiative, which seeks to utilize Nigeria’s abundant gas resources towards revamping the nation’s industrial growth and kickstarting its economic prosperity. Earlier this month, President Bola Tinubu commissioned three critical gas infrastructure projects executed by NNPC Limited and its partners in Ohaji-Egbema, in Imo State and Kwale, in Delta State.
The three projects commissioned include the expansion of the AHL Gas Processing Plant, the ANOH Gas Processing Plant and the 23.3km ANOH to Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) Custody Transfer Metering Station Gas Pipeline Projects. Meanwhile the $2.8 billion Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano gas pipeline project being undertaken by Oilserv Limited has progressed appreciably with the project expected to be completed by December 2024.
Apart from the presidential CNG Initiative that I have already touched on, the Tinubu administration also embarked on an LPG grassroots penetration program with the roll out of free one million gas cylinders to promote clean cooking energy for families across Nigeria.
Civil Service Reforms/Cost of Governance/Ease of Doing Business
The President in the past one year did not leave out civil service reforms and has taken bold steps to implement some parts of the Steve Oronsaye report that will rationalise government ministries and parastatals and reduce cost of governance. The President also issued executive orders that reduced size of official delegations for foreign and local trips by 60% and halted unnecessary public-funded foreign trips by government officials. Negotiations for a new national minimum wage is also ongoing.
The Tinubu administration also launched a national single window initiative to improve ease of trade by removing bottlenecks that hinder quick completion of international trade. The national single window initiative created a single portal for trade actors, both Nigerian and international, to access a full range of resources and standardized services from different government agencies including the Customs Service, SON, NAFDAC, CBN, FIRS, NBS etc. This portal offers a streamlined documentation process where traders can electronically submit and process all trade-related documents from one window.
Security
President Tinubu over the course of one year has made national security a major priority. He has stepped up investments in equipping the nation’s armed forces. The President among other things approved purchase of 12 fighter helicopters for the Nigerian Army, purchased TK129 ATAK helicopters, Diamond 62 Surveillance aircraft, Augusta 109 trekker multi-role helicopter, M-346 aircraft and a King Air 360i aircraft for the. Nigerian Airforce. Three new warships and two helicopters were also procured for the Navy in addition to operational vehicles, surveillance and attack drones, locally produced armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and arms for various security agencies.
The military equally stepped up offensives against terrorists and criminal elements across many theatre of operation leading to the freeing of over 4,600 hostages and more than 9,300 hostiles neutralized. Within this period, the armed forces have arrested 7,000 terrorists and bandits. The Tinubu administration also established the Pullako Initiative, a non-kinetic approach to combating security challenges in the North West.
A BRIGHT FUTURE BECKONS
As we step into the second year of the Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, there are plenty reasons to be highly expectant. Having used the first one year to lay the foundation for growth across so many areas of governance and the economy, President Bola Tinubu is poised to step on the accelerator as the nation has successfully navigated the bumpy parts of the road filled with potholes. We are approaching a smoother road and Nigerians can expect that this second year would bring succour, greater relief for the people as the many policies of the administration begin to manifest. The journey to a great and prosperous Nigeria is irreversible, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is determined to ensure that. Let us enjoy the ride!