“Let’s look at what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong to bring life back to the economy.
“As I have said many times, the people of this country are only the people we have to please.
“And we are very much concerned from students to mothers and fathers, farmers, the traders and realising that everyone of us will have to fetch water from the same well. We’re looking for additional efforts that might help the downtrodden Nigerians and we will provide hope and reassurance that economic recovery is on its way.
“We are not saying that we have all the answers. But we will not be blamed for not trying. We assure Nigerians that we will do our best to get our marshal plan in place and fashion out the best economic future for this country.”
President Bola Tinubu made this position known when he Constituted an Economic Advisory Committee (EAC), that is made up of the federal government, sub-nationals and the private sector.
This came during a meeting the President held with key stakeholders at the presidential in Abuja, yesterday evening, February 26.
The development came as the falling naira exchange rate, rising inflation and other economic headwinds have continued to worsen the cost of living crisis and threatening the stability of the country
Some of the prominent members of the private sector that made the list include the Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu and the Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote.
President Tinubu told the advisors that the goal is to provide additional efforts in stabilising the economy and ensuring the “best economic future for Nigerians.”
At the meeting, Tinubu discussed food security, job creation and the exchange rate.
Dangote, who was part of the private sector delegation on the committee, said that the meeting would afford the stakeholders the opportunity to clarify the specifics of their roles in President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
“I think we had a very good meeting. What we discussed is generally about the economy, food security and security of the nation. We discussed everything in detail.
“The economic presidential advisory committee which has been set up…will look at all the issues and address them, coming from job creation and food security.
“So, all these things have been discussed in detail. I can’t give you all the details right now, but we are hopeful and we’re a great nation. We have what it takes to turn around the economy and we’re going to do that.”
This is even as Tony Elumelu said that implementing the decisions made at the meeting would propel the nation’s economy and help alleviate the poverty in the land, as well as helping to create employment and put food on the table of Nigerians.
Also, the Chairman of the BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, said that the committee held frank and exhaustive discussions with the President on the foreign exchange rate.
Citing the recent volatility of the naira against the dollar, Rabiu said: “We discussed on how to bring the foreign exchange rate down because we all know that what is happening as regards the foreign exchange is artificial. It is manipulative and thank God the CBN is doing quite a lot.”
