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Olugbemi. Adeyinka Ogunleye
4 weeks ago
Overview
Major Economic Issues to Watch in 2025
Beyond the promises of President Bola Tinubu to turn Nigeria around for good, analysts said Nigerians will be the judge in 2025 the way the current administration handles issues like the new Tax laws, the proposed tariff increase in the telecoms sector, the 2025 Budget, Oil production, banks’ recapitalization, aviation issues, and agriculture, among others...
Amid the Nigerian economy’s lacklustre performance in 2024, experts said anything short of a bumper economic trajectory in the new year, which began on Wednesday, may stress Nigerians beyond the limit.
2025 Budget
However, apart from Budget 2025, which is christened ‘Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity,’ which is currently awaiting the National Assembly’s approval, other government programmes for next year remain in the realm of conjectures. This prompts THISDAY analysts to draw attention to key sectoral issues that need urgent attention if the government is serious about its desire to rebuild prosperity. According to President Bola Tinubu, the 2025 budget, with an expenditure programme of N49.7 trillion, is designed to retool and revamp the country’s socio-economic fabric.
However, rather than rekindle hope, the 2025 budget is being trailed by controversies largely caused by its over-ambitious assumptions, with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) saying the budget is too optimistic and fragile to work with given the economic realities in the country. According to LCCI, “The assumption of an exchange rate at N1,500 is too fragile to work with against the current average of above N1,600 to a dollar in both the official and parallel markets.”
The chamber argued that assuming an inflation rate of 15.8 per cent does not reflect the unabating factors pushing up both the headline and food inflation, adding that with inflation rising to 33.88 per cent as of October 2024, it is unrealistic to assume a steep 51 per cent crash within a year. Meanwhile, the budget is predicated on a base crude oil production assumption of 2.06 million barrels per day (mbpd). Nigerians will therefore want to know how the government plans to go about the sharp reduction in the inflation rate as promised. There is also concern about the rising debt profile, which has made the government commit about N15 trillion to debt payments in the 2025 budget. Analysts said the current debt situation has put the economy at a big risk.
Agriculture
With reports putting the number of people to face acute hunger in 2025 at a staggering 33 million people, Nigerian has no choice but to take decisive steps to tackle food insecurity in the new year. In response to this, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi said the federal government is poised to develop Nigeria’s agriculture, which was the reason for changing the name from Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
