Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has urged the World Economic Forum (WEF) to encourage global collaboration and inclusiveness.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Sunday, April 28, 2024, President Tinubu stated that the forum is equally valuable for the sharing of experiences as well as sharing the hope of the future.
“And I’m glad the Kingdom (Saudi Arabia) relies on world collaboration and inclusiveness. The capital formation that is necessary to drive the economy like agriculture, food security, innovation, technology advancement must be an inclusive programme of the entire world.
“No one should be left behind. The fear of lack of capital in Africa, stigmatisation… I am glad the world is recognising the need that the type of population growth that Africa experiences, the diversity of its resources must be married with its economic opportunity. We must collaborate to do that, and that is what we are doing so far,” he said.
Speaking on the challenging experiences of Nigerian following some of the policies taken by his administration, Tinubu said that the floating of the Nigerian currency, the Naira was necessary to remove the “artificial element of value” in the currency.
He explained that Nigeria is immensely consistent with the belief that economic collaboration and inclusiveness are necessary to engender stability.
On the issue of the removal of subsidy on petrol. Tinubu said that it was a necessary action for Nigeria not to go bankrupt and to reset the economy on the pathway to growth.
“It is going to be difficult, but the hallmark of leadership is taking difficult decisions at the time it ought to be taken, decisively. That was necessary for the country.
“Yes, there will be blowback, there is expectation that the difficulty in it will be felt by a greater number of the people, but to us, I believe it was their interest, that is the focus of the government. It is easier to manage and explain the difficulties.
“Luckily, we have a very vibrant, youthful population interested in discoveries by themselves and highly ready for technology, good education, committed to growth. We were able to manage and partition the economic drawback and the fallout of the subsidy removal.”
According to him, these policy decisions have engendered transparency, accountability and fiscal discipline for the country.
“The currency management was necessary equally to remove the artificial element of value in our currency. Let our local currency find its level and compete with the rest of the world’s currency and remove arbitrage, corruption, and opaqueness.
“That we did at the same time, that’s a two-engine problem in a very turbulent situation for the government, but we were able to manage that turbulence because we prepared for inclusivity in governance and rapid communication with the public to really see what is necessary and what you must do,” he added.
GIK/APA