The Federal Government says the removal of petrol subsidy and foreign exchange reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration generated ₦15.8tn in subsidy savings between June 2023 and December 2025.
The government, however, admitted that despite the significant fiscal gains recorded from the reforms, millions of Nigerians are yet to feel corresponding improvements in their living standards.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Wednesday while unveiling the government’s Nigeria Reform Scorecard, which assessed the economic impact of policies implemented since May 2023.
According to the scorecard, the Federal Government received ₦5.4tn from the subsidy savings, while ₦10.4tn was distributed among the 36 states and 774 local governments through the Federation Account.
The government also generated ₦3.1tn in additional independent revenue and raised ₦11.9tn through incremental borrowing, bringing the total additional resources to ₦20.4tn.
It said the resources contributed to financing ₦30.64tn in incremental expenditure, including ₦9.39tn for wage adjustments, minimum wage increases and allowances, ₦9.37tn for external debt servicing and ₦6.5tn for strategic infrastructure.
Oyedele said the figures showed that the subsidy removal was not primarily introduced as a revenue-generating measure but to eliminate distortions and leakages associated with the subsidy regime while creating fiscal space for government.
The minister said the reforms had also strengthened Nigeria’s external position, with gross foreign reserves rising from about $35bn to $52.5bn, while net reserves increased from approximately $3bn to $34.8bn.
Real Gross Domestic Product growth, according to the scorecard, improved from 2.31 per cent in May 2023 to 3.89 per cent, while inflation fell from 22.41 per cent to 15.91 per cent.
Food inflation also declined from 24.82 per cent to 17.52 per cent as of June 2026, the government claimed.
The administration further cited the expansion of the capital market, with stock market capitalisation increasing from about ₦31tn to ₦150tn, alongside Nigeria’s sovereign credit rating upgrade by S&P Global and its exit from the Financial Action Task Force grey list.
The government also presented a counterfactual assessment, arguing that without the reforms, the number of states unable to reliably meet salary obligations could have risen from 27 in May 2023 to at least 30 by 2026.
It added that the gap between the official and parallel foreign exchange markets could have exceeded 150 per cent, compared with less than five per cent currently.
Despite the reported gains, the government acknowledged that the reforms had imposed significant economic pressures on households.
The Monetary Policy Rate, for instance, rose from 18.5 per cent to 26.5 per cent, while petrol prices increased from about ₦185 to between ₦1,100 and ₦1,400 per litre.
Oyedele conceded that poverty and household welfare remained major concerns.
“On food and household welfare, our own assessment is candid: this remains work in progress,” he said.
He said the next phase of the administration’s economic programme would focus on translating macroeconomic stability into tangible improvements in household welfare.
According to him, the government plans to expand cash transfers, deepen agricultural interventions, improve the quality of public spending and ensure that state and local governments deliver greater benefits to citizens.
Oyedele also said the government would continue implementing the Nigeria Tax Act and work towards increasing the tax-to-GDP ratio while protecting low-income earners and small businesses.
Defending the reforms, the minister urged Nigerians to support policies aimed at strengthening the economy while continuing to hold the government accountable.
“We are not here to pretend these reforms were painless. We are here to show you, honestly and with the numbers, what they cost, the benefits they delivered, and the harm they prevented,” Oyedele said.
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