Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, on Friday highlighted the high absorptive capacity of the Nigerian economy, explaining that President Bola Tinubu’s economic reform has created a stable macroeconomic environment for investment.
The minister spoke in Abuja during a courtesy visit from a delegation of the Wharton University of Pennsylvania Global Initiative led by its Managing Director, Prof Ziv Katalon. He said the reform had started to produce positive results, including increased revenue levels, which had raised the nation’s revenue to GDP ratio to 15% from the 9% that the president met in 2023.
Bagudu stated that President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda strategy anticipated that tough decisions would be necessary but clarified that the reform had freed and empowered the government to generate more resources for investment in key sectors of the economy. He stated that the additional revenues generated by the reform had allowed the government to address the reality of several years of underinvestment in the productive sectors of the economy. This, he pointed out, had opened up the economy for private sector investment, which he said the country has limitless capacity to absorb.
“The Nigerian populace consists of very hardworking people who are willing to put in the effort to grow the economy. So, our capacity to absorb billions of dollars in investment is not in doubt,” he stated.
The Global Initiative’s Katalon stated that the delegation was in the country as part of its effort to train leaders, who would guide the world in public and business sectors.
He pledged the institution’s commitment to collaborate with Nigeria in education and technological development, emphasising Nigeria as a critical and important country, especially given the number of its students at Wharton University, which, he pointed out, has grown exponentially over the years.
He observed that the human capital, along with energy, innovation, and resourcefulness in Nigeria, was unmatched.
We are hopeful that we will be back with a group of students in May 2026 and start creating the tradition we have established in many other parts of the world,” he stated.