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The International Monetary Fund said on Friday that the Nigerian government’s tough economic reforms have yet to benefit the average citizen, nearly two years after their introduction.

After assuming office in May 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu launched a sweeping economic reform programme, which both the government and the IMF described as necessary to correct the country’s public finances.

However, these measures have come at a cost for many ordinary Nigerians, who are experiencing the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

The government has taken “important steps to stabilise the economy, enhance resilience, and support growth,” wrote Axel Schimmelpfennig, IMF Mission Chief for Nigeria, in a statement.

But those “gains have yet to benefit all Nigerians, as poverty and food insecurity remain high,” he added, following nearly two weeks of routine discussions with government officials and civil society representatives in the country.

“The outlook is marked by significant uncertainty,” he warned, noting that increased global uncertainty and falling oil prices will also impact the Nigerian economy.

Nonetheless, Tinubu’s reforms have put the economy in a “better position to navigate this external environment,” Schimmelpfennig said.

The reform measures include the liberalisation of the battered naira, the removal of fuel subsidies—which had kept petrol prices low for decades—and ending the Central Bank’s financing of the fiscal deficit.

In October, the World Bank reported that poverty in Nigeria had surged over the past six years, now affecting more than half of the population, with 129 million people living in poverty. (The PUNCH)

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