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| Vice President — Kashim Shettima |
The National Economic Council (NEC) on Thursday endorsed a focused 90-day economic action plan designed to reduce the cost of living, improve food affordability, attract investment, and accelerate high-impact projects with direct benefits for ordinary Nigerians.
Proposed by the Federal Ministry of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Taiwo Oyedele, the plan was approved during the council’s 161st meeting, chaired virtually by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The five priority areas are clear: food affordability, tax harmonisation, completion of high-impact projects, resolution of investment bottlenecks, and regulated household support.
NEC also approved a national dashboard to track projects nationwide, with particular emphasis on transparency and accountability in the use of proceeds from fuel subsidy removal.
These steps come more than three years after President Bola Tinubu’s administration launched sweeping reforms—removing the petrol subsidy, unifying exchange rates, and tightening fiscal and monetary policy—that stabilised key macroeconomic indicators but imposed severe short-term costs on households.
Background: Reforms That Stabilised the Macro Picture but Stressed Households
When Tinubu took office in 2023, Nigeria faced acute fiscal pressures, foreign-exchange shortages, and an unsustainable subsidy regime that consumed large shares of government revenue.
The decision to end the fuel subsidy and liberalise the FX market restored some fiscal space, boosted non-oil revenues, raised external reserves (reported in the $46–52 billion range in recent assessments), and supported stronger GDP growth figures—around 4.2–4.4% in recent periods according to World Bank and official data. Inflation has moderated from peaks above 27% toward the mid-teens in late 2025 and into 2026, though food inflation and transport costs remain elevated and purchasing power has been eroded.
Independent analyses, including from the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), acknowledge that the reforms delivered measurable stabilisation after years of vulnerability. Yet they also highlight the heavy adjustment costs: surging energy and transport prices, higher production costs for businesses, imported inflation from naira depreciation, declining real incomes, and a persistent cost-of-living crisis.
Analysts note that while headline numbers improved, the benefits have been slow to reach the average household. Finance Minister Oyedele has argued that without the reforms, inflation could have spiralled far higher—potentially into extreme territory—citing earlier monetary financing and subsidy-related pressures. The government has pointed to salary adjustments, cash transfers reaching millions of households, and infrastructure spending as offsets, but critics and ordinary citizens continue to feel the pinch in markets and on the roads.
The 90-day plan represents an attempt to shift from stabilisation toward tangible relief. It is not the first short-term accelerator under this administration; earlier efforts, such as PEBEC’s regulatory reform plans, focused on ease of doing business. This one is more explicitly welfare-oriented, aiming to concentrate efforts on interventions that can quickly improve affordability and confidence.
Shettima’s Charge: Measure Success by Daily Lives, Not Just Metrics
Vice President Shettima framed the discussion in human terms. He urged governors and institutions to ensure that the gains of the reforms translate into affordable transportation, better healthcare, employment opportunities, and greater financial security. “The first dividend of prosperity should be the confidence to plan a life. Our task is to make such confidence less dependent on fortune,” he said. He stressed cooperative federalism: “Our separate mandates must not become competing excuses. Each governor carries knowledge that no federal document can supply.”
On transport specifically, Shettima insisted that the National Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Bus Initiative—and broader CNG and electric vehicle efforts—must be judged by reductions in commuters’ expenses rather than the size of the fleet. “The cost of reaching a livelihood should never consume the livelihood itself. The passenger’s experience must guide our ambition… We should assess success through affordability and access, rather than fleet size alone.” NEC resolved to establish a joint federal-state financing framework to speed up deployment of CNG and electric vehicles, and directed authorities to engage transport unions and operators so that fuel savings are passed on as lower fares.
This focus is well-timed. The Presidential Initiative on CNG and Electric Vehicles has reported substantial activity: more than 120,000 vehicle conversions, over 650 CNG buses deployed in various capacities, thousands of tricycles, hundreds of conversion centres, and growing numbers of refuelling stations (over 90 in recent counts, with plans for far more). Private investment into the value chain has been cited in the $2–2.5 billion range. Yet progress remains uneven across states, infrastructure gaps persist, and many commuters have yet to see consistent fare reductions. Redirecting some funding from a pure bus-purchase model toward broader conversions and higher-capacity vehicles has expanded reach in some metrics, but the ultimate test remains whether ordinary travellers pay less to get to work or market.
Transparency Dashboard, Food, Tax, and Investment Focus
The national project dashboard is intended to improve visibility into how subsidy savings and other resources are deployed, addressing long-standing public scepticism about leakage and delayed delivery. Food affordability sits at the top of the priority list for good reason: food inflation has eased from higher levels but still weighs heavily on household budgets.
Tax harmonisation aims to reduce the multiplicity of levies that burden businesses and, indirectly, consumers. Clearing investment bottlenecks and completing high-impact projects are meant to support job creation and supply-side improvements that can eventually lower prices.
Regulated household support points toward more targeted interventions for the vulnerable.
Oyedele’s presentation reportedly expressed optimism about the reform trajectory and flagged goals such as bringing headline inflation and interest rates toward single digits by 2027, while emphasising the need for stronger federal-state coordination and removal of barriers to investment.
Parallel Concerns: Health Security and Productive Sectors
The meeting was not limited to economics. Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate briefed the council on a confirmed Ebola case in the Federal Capital Territory involving a traveller who had arrived from Uganda. Authorities identified dozens of contacts and emphasised containment capacity through coordination, point-of-entry detection, laboratory testing, PPE and kits, and public communication.
Pate noted that 21 states had updated preparedness plans and urged the remaining 15 to do the same. The case has been described as isolated, with officials stressing no evidence of community spread and urging calm while maintaining vigilance. This is Nigeria’s first reported Ebola case in more than a decade, occurring against the backdrop of a wider regional outbreak.
NEC also directed stronger polio eradication efforts, focusing on missed children in insecure areas and improved coordination, and recognised the potential of livestock development for jobs, growth, and livelihoods, calling for deeper federal-state collaboration in the sector.
Analysis: Promise Versus Delivery Risks
The 90-day plan is pragmatic in its short timeframe and clear priorities. It acknowledges that macroeconomic improvements alone are insufficient; public confidence depends on visible relief in transport fares, food prices, and household budgets. The emphasis on joint financing for CNG/EV, engagement with unions, and a transparency dashboard shows awareness of implementation gaps that have plagued previous initiatives.
Yet challenges remain substantial. Coordination between federal and state governments has historically been uneven. Passing CNG savings through to lower fares requires not only vehicles and stations but enforcement, operator buy-in, and sustained fuel-price advantages. Food affordability depends on agricultural productivity, logistics, storage, and security—areas where progress is gradual. Tax reforms and investment climate improvements take time to yield results.
Public patience has been tested by years of elevated living costs, and political calendars (including the approach to 2027 elections) add pressure for quick wins.
Unique insight: The plan’s strength may lie less in new spending than in forcing alignment and measurement. By tying success explicitly to passenger experience and household outcomes rather than activity metrics, and by creating a public dashboard, the government is raising the bar for accountability. Whether states, transport unions, and implementing agencies respond with equal urgency will determine if this becomes another well-intentioned communiqué or a genuine accelerator of relief.
Historical patterns in Nigeria suggest that short-term action plans succeed when they combine clear targets, dedicated resources, political will at multiple levels, and continuous public reporting. The coming three months will test whether those elements are present this time.
In sum, the NEC endorsement marks a deliberate pivot toward making the dividends of reform more tangible. The ambition is necessary. Delivery—measured in lower market prices, cheaper bus fares, and restored household confidence—will be the real verdict.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers Global, News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Politics and Technology.
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