Nigeria's new president vows to deliver economic reboot as he inherits 'a broken country'
ABUJA, Nigeria - May 29, 2023: Nigeria's President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu arrives to attend swearing-in ceremony at Eagle Square in the capital. Tinubu inherits a fractured society a crippled economy as he takes the reins of Africa's most populous nation.
New Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu faces the tough task of injecting stability into a society and economy in crisis — and reigniting hope in a young population that feels its voice has been ignored for decades.
The 71-year-old was sworn in on Monday as the 16th president of Africa's most populous nation, and its fifth since the end of three decades of military rule in 1999. He succeeds Muhammadu Buhari, also of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party, who departs with a widely criticized economic record.
Meanwhile, judges are considering a legal petition from opposition leaders, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, alleging fraud and challenging the result of February's presidential election.
Tinubu inherits an economy saddled with record debt and inflation at an almost two-decade high of more than 22%, along with shortages of foreign exchange reserves and fuel, a severely weakened naira currency, an ailing power supply and declining oil production.
Economic turmoil
As former governor of Lagos state between 1999 and 2007, Tinubu was credited with modernizing Nigeria's commercial hub and vastly expanding the regional economy.
Touting his record, he vowed at his swearing-in ceremony on Monday to expand the Nigerian economy by at least 6% per year, unify the the foreign exchange rate and scrap costly fuel subsidies, along with tackling widespread insecurity.
"I have a message for our investors, local and foreign: our government shall review all their complaints about multiple taxation and various anti-investment inhibitions," Tinubu told the audience in Abuja's Eagle Square, while also promising a "thorough house cleaning" of monetary policy.
His predecessor Buhari deployed a series of protectionist economic policies and spooked international investors. While he claimed in a farewell speech on Sunday that many of the "tough decisions" had boosted the country's economic resilience, the hard data showed unemployment and poverty expanding.
Source: CNBC
