Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs (office of the Vice President), Tope Fasua, has assured Nigerians that the country’s inflation rate will fall to single digit, pointing to the strengthening of the naira, lower food prices, and ongoing reforms as evidence that the economy was gradually recovering.
Speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast show, ‘Morning Brief’, on Tuesday, Fasua said recent economic trends confirmed that progress was being made under the Tinubu administration.
“Nigeria’s inflation is certainly going down to single digits and that’s not the only index that we can see,” Fasua declared.
“Yesterday, the naira closed down to ₦1,497 to the dollar for the first time in more than eight months. We clocked that region.”
He explained that the two major drivers of inflation—food and exchange rates—were both stabilising.
“There is a reason why inflation is reducing. Food is one of the key drivers of inflation, exchange rate is also one of the key drivers of inflation. Exchange rate has stabilised and is actually strengthening via market forces without anybody dictating the rate, it’s going down. And food prices are also going down,” he said.
To illustrate his point, Fasua recalled a recent encounter with a leading agriculture expert.
“I ran into a gentleman called African Farmer Magaji, he’s someone that I respect a lot in the agric space, he knows a lot about things like tomatoes and he told me that first time in 26 years, this year we did not have that usual ruckus around tomato prices soaring between May, June and July, that stability there.”
According to him, the downward trend in food prices was already being felt nationwide.
“Food prices are reducing, even some farmers in some region are complaining that government is crashing food prices and it’s affecting them negatively, majority of farmers and Nigerians are enjoying low rate of food prices,” he added.
Fasua stressed that the administration’s economic rebuilding plan goes beyond short-term fixes, noting that trade and export expansion remained central to the government’s agenda.
He added that the administration was building the economy from the ground, especially in trade export as well.
He also likened Nigeria’s economic journey to the growth pattern of China’s bamboo tree, insisting that the government’s reforms will soon yield rapid and visible results.
“I always make example of the Chinese bamboo tree, they plant it and water it for five years and you think nothing is happening, when it begins to grow, it will grow five meters everyday, you may not be able to control it. I think President Tinubu and his administration, we are getting it right, unfortunately for the opposition, they just have to swallow the bitter pill.”
