Dele Oye: Huge FX Reserves, 4.43% Growth Must Lead to Lower Food Prices, Jobs
*Lauds Tinubu for macroeconomic stability
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Chairman of the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics, Dele Oye, has said although reforms by the Bola Tinubu administration has improved the country’s macroeconomic stability and resilience, the government must now take further steps to turn the gains into lower food prices, productive jobs and improved living standards for Nigerians.
Oye, in a statement titled: “The Economy Is Stabilising. Now Let the People Feel It,” said the administration deserved recognition for taking politically difficult decisions, including petrol subsidy removal, foreign exchange reforms, the abandonment of monetary financing of fiscal deficits, the rebuilding of external reserves and tighter monetary policy.
According to him, these measures have helped address distortions that had weakened the foundations of the Nigerian economy, stressing that macroeconomic stability was only the beginning of the work, and that the success of the reforms must ultimately be measured by their impact on ordinary citizens.
He cited Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves, which it said reached a 17-year high of $53.11 billion as of August 24, 2026 (it has now reached $54 billion), as evidence of stronger external buffers and referenced the National Bureau of Statistics’ report that the economy grew by 4.43 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, up from 3.89 per cent in the previous quarter, with both oil and non-oil sectors recording stronger growth.