What I’ve done to reduce hardship – Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu on Sunday enumerated the various programmes implemented by his administration to ameliorate the economic hardship in the country.

Speaking during a national broadcast, he noted that the

once-declining oil and gas industry is experiencing a resurgence on the back of the reforms he announced in May 2024 to address the gaps in the Petroleum Industry Act.

President added: “Last month, we increased our oil production to 1.61million barrels per day, and our gas assets are receiving the attention they deserve. Investors are coming back, and we have already seen two Foreign Direct Investments signed of over half a billion dollars since then.

“Fellow Nigerians, we are a country blessed with both oil and gas resources, but we met a country that had been dependent solely on oil-based petrol, neglecting its gas resources to power the economy. We were also using our hard-earned foreign exchange to pay for, and subsidise its use.

“To address this, we immediately launched our Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (CNG) to power our transportation economy and bring costs down. This will save over two trillion Naira a month, being used to import PMS and AGO and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and education.

“To this end, we will be distributing a million kits of extremely low or no cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods and who currently consume 80% of the imported PMS and AGO.

“We have started the distribution of conversion kits and setting up of conversion centres across the country in conjunction with the private sector. We believe that this CNG initiative will reduce transportation costs by approximately 60 per cent and help to curb inflation.

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“Our administration has shown its commitment to the youth by setting up the student loan scheme.To date, 45.6billion Naira has already been processed for payment to students and their respective institutions.

I encourage more of our vibrant youth population to take advantage of this opportunity. We established the Consumer Credit Corporation with over N200billion to help Nigerians to acquire essential products without the need for immediate cash payments, making life easier for millions of households.

“This will consequently reduce corruption and eliminate cash and opaque transactions. This week, I ordered the release of an additional N50billion Naira each for NELFUND – the student loan, and Credit Corporation from the proceeds of crime recovered by the EFCC.

“Additionally, we have secured $620million under the Digital and Creative Enterprises (IDiCE) – a programme to empower our young people, creating millions of IT and technical jobs that will make them globally competitive. These programmes include the 3Million Technical Talents scheme. Unfortunately, one of the digital centres was vandalised during the protests in Kano. What a shame!

“In addition, we have introduced the Skill-Up Artisans Programme (SUPA); the Nigerian Youth Academy (NIYA); and the National Youth Talent Export Programme (NATEP).

“Also, more than N570 billion has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses have benefitted from our nano-grants. An additional 400,000 more nano-businesses are expected to benefit.

“Furthermore, 75,000 beneficiaries have been processed to receive our N1million Micro and Small Business single-digit interest loans, starting this month. We have also built 10 MSME hubs within the past year, created 240,000 jobs through them and 5 more hubs are in progress which will be ready by October this year.

“Payments of N1billion each are also being made to large manufacturers under our single-digit loans to boost manufacturing output and stimulate growth.

“I signed the National Minimum Wage into law last week, and the lowest-earning workers will now earn at least N70,000 a month.

“Six months ago in Karsana, Abuja, I inaugurated the first phase of our ambitious housing initiative, the Renewed Hope City and Estate. This project is the first of six we have planned across the nation’s geopolitical zones. Each of these cities will include a minimum of 1,000 housing units, with Karsana itself set to deliver 3,212 units.

“In addition to these city projects, we are also launching the Renewed Hope Estates in every state, each comprising 500 housing units. Our goal is to complete a total of 100,000 housing units over the next three years. This initiative is not only about providing homes but also about creating thousands of jobs across the nation as well as stimulating economic growth.

“We are providing incentives to farmers to increase food production at affordable prices. I have directed that tariffs and other import duties should be removed on rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, drugs, and other pharmaceutical and medical supplies for the next 6 months, in the first instance, to help drive down the prices.

“I have been meeting with our Governors and key Ministers to accelerate food production. We have distributed fertilisers. Our target is to cultivate more than 10 million hectares of land to grow what we eat. “The Federal Government will provide all necessary incentives for this initiative, whilst the states provide the land, which will put millions of our people to work and further increase food production. In the past few months, we have also ordered mechanized farming equipment such as tractors and planters, worth billions of Naira from the United States, Belarus, and Brazil. I can confirm to you that the equipment is on the way.”

President Tinubu urged security agencies to continue to maintain peace.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE