The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, yesterday said the President Bola Tinubu administration has implemented bold reforms that have positioned the nation’s economy for sustained recovery and growth, despite short-term pain.

The minister said this while addressing State House Correspondents after a courtesy call on Tinubu in his Lagos residence on Saturday night.

Bagudu commended the administration’s economic policies, stating that Nigeria is beginning to reap the fruits of long-overdue structural changes. “We’re not where we want to be, but these steps have turned the economy in the right direction,” he said.

The minister emphasised that the Tinubu administration’s decision to end costly subsidies on fuel, foreign exchange and electricity, was pivotal. Bagudu said: “Decades of underinvestment brought Nigeria to a point where even paying salaries was difficult.

“By cutting these subsidies, we freed up resources. Today, subnational governments, states and local governments, have nearly tripled the funds they had before. That’s transformative.”