Nigeria’s economic reforms on course, Bagudu assures World Bank

By Tony Obiechina Abuja

Nigeria’s economic reforms are on track and making significant progress, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, reaffirmed on Monday.

The minister spoke during a courtesy visit from the World Bank’s new Country Director for Nigeria, Mr. Matthew Verghis, stated that the reforms are yielding positive results.

He pointed out that some of the encouraging outcomes of the reforms were the significant rise in revenues accruing to states and local governments, explaining that there had also been substantial debt reduction.

Bagudu thanked the World Bank team for its support of the reforms and welcomed the Nigeria Development Update unveiled last week as documentary evidence of the positive economic progress the country is making.

“Our ambition is to grow the Nigerian economy to $1 trillion, and to achieve that, we need to develop a strategy for attaining double-digit growth,” he stated.

Bagudu noted that growth is possible through mobilising public support from the political class, labour unions, and the private sector, who have indicated broad acceptance of the reforms.

“We are confident that we will stay on course,” he said.

Earlier, the new World Bank Country Director to Nigeria, noted that India followed a similar path in the early 90s, explaining that the tough economic decisions it took led to three decades of growth in India with a significant reduction in poverty and a general turnaround.

He expressed the World Bank team’s commitment to assist Nigeria in growing its economy by accelerating growth, encouraging job creation, promoting financial inclusion, and supporting agri-business, among other initiatives.

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Before his posting to Nigeria, Verghis was the South Asia Regional Director for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions at the World Bank. His previous assignments included serving as Practice Manager for Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment in East and Southern Africa, and as Practice Manager in East Asia, covering China, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia.

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