Afreximbank, Africa’s leading export-import bank, has issued a stark warning about Nigeria’s financial future, predicting that the country’s debt service to revenue ratio could reach a staggering 110.4% in 2024.

This dire forecast highlights the escalating fiscal challenges that Nigeria faces as it grapples with economic instability and mounting debts.

In its latest country report, Afreximbank traced the alarming rise in Nigeria’s debt service to revenue ratio from 33.8% in 2017 to the projected 110.4% for 2024. This steep increase signals potential difficulties for Nigeria in meeting its debt servicing obligations, given its current revenue generation capacity.

Earlier this year, BusinessDay reported that Africa’s largest economy spent 66.9% (N5.79 trillion) of its total revenue of N8.65 trillion on debt servicing in the first nine months of the year. While this figure is lower than the 99.3% (N4.23 trillion) recorded in the same period of 2022, it underscores the persistent fiscal strain Nigeria faces.

Despite the gloomy outlook for 2024, the bank suggests that continuous structural reforms and improved fiscal management could reduce the debt service to revenue ratio to 62.6% by 2025.

Afreximbank stated, “The debt service to revenue ratio has increased significantly, from 33.8% in 2017 to a projected 110.4% in 2024, signalling potential difficulties in meeting debt servicing obligations relative to revenue generation.”

The report further noted that in terms of foreign exchange (FX) debt, Nigeria is experiencing a relatively low FX debt-to-GDP ratio, which has surged from 16.7% in 2017 to a projected 40.3% in 2024.

However, the debt-to-export ratio, which peaked at 235.7% in 2020, is expected to decline to 137.1% by 2025. This high ratio indicates Nigeria’s heavy reliance on external borrowing compared to its export earnings, highlighting the need for more balanced economic strategies.

“The debt-to-export ratio has also shown a substantial increase, reaching 235.7% in 2020 before gradually declining. It is projected to decrease to 137.1% in 2025, suggesting a heavy reliance on external borrowing compared to export earnings,” Afreximbank noted.

The report also highlights Nigeria’s debt service to export ratio, which has fluctuated over the years, reaching 18.4% in 2023. This ratio measures the proportion of exports required to service debt obligations, underscoring Nigeria’s dependence on its export sector to manage its debt burden.

Despite these challenges, Afreximbank’s report offers a cautiously optimistic view of Nigeria’s ability to sustain its debt. The bank emphasizes the importance of diversifying funding sources and enhancing revenue generation to mitigate risks associated with rising debt levels.

“The country needs to find diverse funding sources and increase its revenue to minimize risks associated with rising debt levels and debt service obligations compared to GDP, exports, and revenue,” the report emphasized.

It further noted that to address these fiscal challenges, Nigeria needs to implement effective measures to enhance its tax collection systems. Additionally, the bank said that addressing the pervasive issue of oil theft is crucial to safeguarding one of Nigeria’s critical revenue streams, noting also the need for reducing non-productive government spending will also free up resources that can be redirected towards debt servicing.

“Enhancing tax collection systems, curbing oil theft, cutting non-productive government spending, and supporting private sector-led growth can ease debt sustainability pressures and promote long-term economic stability,” Afreximbank said.

The lender noted that supporting private sector-led growth by promoting private sector initiatives can drive economic expansion and increase revenue, providing the government with the financial flexibility needed to manage its debt more effectively.

The report highlighted securing debt management frameworks, improving transparency and accountability in debt procurement and use, and establishing sustainable debt repayment plans as crucial to protecting Nigeria’s fiscal health and reducing risks linked with mounting debt levels and debt service obligations.

Finance Minister Wale Edun recently highlighted significant improvements in Nigeria’s revenue-to-debt service ratio, which he said has declined from 97% in 2023 to 68% in 2024. This reduction suggests a decreasing debt burden and an overall improvement in the country’s fiscal health.

The Minister attributed this positive trend to enhanced revenue collection efforts and measures to curtail systemic leakages. Notably, Nigeria has ceased relying on ways and means advances from the Central Bank to fund its fiscal obligations, marking a pivotal step towards more sustainable economic governance.

“The country’s debt service to export ratio has varied over the years, reaching 18.4% in 2023, which indicates the proportion of exports needed to service debt obligations. Despite facing challenges stemming from the government’s various reforms, Nigeria’s ability to sustain its debt looks promising,” the report added.

Nigeria is in the throes of national social protests at the moment with at least a dozen people killed so far, this is besides the destruction and looting. The 10-day protests billed to take place between 1^st August 2024 to 10^th August, 2024 came with much fanfare and gusto from those organising them. And the authorities have been threatening fire and brimstone in a bid to discourage these protests. Unfortunately for them, there is so much hunger, poverty, misgovernance, high inflation and unbearable distress for the masses to be intimidated by threats.

Realising the futility of their efforts; even after co-opting all stakeholders  including organised labour, organised private sector, all religious and traditional institutions, unions and organisations to its side; the authorities secured ex parte court orders to limit the protests to designated locations in the capital; Abuja; as well as the commercial hub; Lagos.

The causes of these protests include principally economic insecurity. Nigeria uses virtually all its revenue on its loans than on the people. It spends more of its income on its loans than on all other things put together. The ideal ratio for debt service is 22.5% as set by the World Bank and the IMF for economies like Nigeria’s. However, in the first half of 20223, Nigeria used 97% of revenue to service debts! Even now that the numbers for debt-service have improved to 68% of revenue in 2024Q2, something has been sacrificed on the altar of the lower debt-service numbers. This is so as Nigeria’s debt burden to GDP ratio has crossed the self-imposed limit of 40%.

Furthermore, Nigeria is experiencing the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. Headline inflation is at 34.19% according to official government statistics. Other authorities have far higher figures several times the official numbers. What is more, food inflation is far worse than the headline. Nigerians are experiencing hunger at the moment because Nigerians neither afford food nor is the food even available. Other pressing problems include high fuel prices and a general exorbitant cost of living pricing out almost everyone out of a decent life.

And copious solutions have been provided in the spirit of not only critiquing but providing alternatives to what is being critiqued. Of course, these are neither exhaustive nor conclusive. While their is an overwhelming proof that the president of Nigeria who only came in around 15 months ago in May, 2023 might have inherited a very bad economy, he has not made things any better but quite the contrary made things far worse with ill-thought out subsidy removal, floating of the naira and a myriad other missteps.

The expectation of many Nigerians when the President decided to address the nation because of the protest, was that  concrete measures with SMART characteristics would be introduced to roll back the damage caused by the President’s own policies. However, the president’s speech only regurgitated the efforts to provide succour, that have completely fallen flat on their face and have been nothing beyond cosmetics. Their is an urgent need to  have solutions that would move the needle. There is a need for the President to not only address the nation but to demonstrate clear-cut deliverables about the issues at hand such.

Like in Kenya where the president withdrew the finance law, abolished dozens of government departments, fired his cabinet, cut fiscal allocations for the presidency and the general costs of governance. Nigeria needs to not only take a leaf out of the Kenyan book but even go further to overhaul the entire apparatus of governance and government generally. This would be a gesture showing the authorities’ determination to fix the problems that made the population to take to the street.

The Nigerian leader, President Bola A. Tinubu needs to go beyond speaking. Addressing these problems would be what really matters. There is a need to make food affordable to all Nigerians, particularly the low-income earners who have been priced out of purchasing essentials like rice and flour. Nigeria being the nation with the least affordable food for its citizens according to the food security index. In terms of availability too, Nigeria is lagging. It is languishing at the bottom of the availability metric.

The authorities’ closing the borders to boost agriculture under the last president was a huge mistake. As Nigeria has not attained food sufficiency nor has it demonstrated the capacity for such in the nearest future. For example, while the total consumption of rice is in the region of 7 million metric tonnes, the production is way below that at 4 million metric tonnes. So, why shut down borders? It would benefit no one but the rice farmers at the detriment of everyone else.

Because food is not affordable and is not available; this is why the determination of the government to allow for food import should not be looked at with suspicion. The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina, has come out all guns blazing against the importation claiming that it would reverse the gains made in the agricultural space so far. Of course, no one wants these gains to be rolled back. But, there is a deficit for years now fueling rising prices. Hence there is nothing wrong about plugging the shortfall. So, the tariff-free food importation is necessary as a stop-gap measure to feed millions of hungry Nigerian while we try to increase the productivity or efficiency of our agriculture.

These are some of the problems as well as the solutions I am proposing that can be immediately implemented to solve some the most pressing challenges Nigerians face:

1. There is a need for food to be affordable to everyday Nigerians inclusive of the lowest income earners.
2. Food being available to everyone.
3. Cost of living coming down to the barest minimum.
4. etc

We are not just raising concerns and proposing general and ineffective solutions but also providing what we think are solutions.

1. Problem- Subsidy removal has made price of fuel spiked with the knock-on effects on the cost of living. What can be done to lower this price?                     

Solutions-

• Encouraging local refining; whether by Dangote refinery, government refineries and modular refineries; with a surfeit of crude feedstock so as not to subject Nigeria’s domestic fuel price to the vicissitudes of international oil price.
• Immediate implementation of the much-hyped Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) wholesomely with the listing of the NNPC to ensure full transparency of the Nigerian oil industry to guarantee value for money.
• Aggressively incentivise local & foreign investments into the oil and gas industry to boost production and revenue.
• Bringing the full force of the Nigerian state to bear in tackling oil theft and insecurity in the oil producing areas as well as everywhere else.

This is but a few of the immediate things that can be done that would move the needle in bringing down fuel price.

 2. Problem- Food is neither affordable nor available for Nigerians.   

Solutions-

• Only the Nigerian state has a monopoly on the use of violence to achieve results. Hence, it should deploy its full powers of coercion to end banditry, militancy, insurgency, the herder issue, criminality, kidnappings and any form of insecurity within months so that all Nigerians, most especially farmers are safe on their farms. That way everyone would go back to their farming activities.
• Increase tractorisation and mechanisation. The government should not try to do this by itself as it has limited capacity. But rather, incentivise Nigerians and non-Nigerians to change from using hoe & cutlass and other stone-age tools to instead doing modern farming with sophisticated tools.  We need machines in the millions to boost horse power per hectare and to increase yield.
• Refineries would help with fertiliser. There is a need to subsidise fertiliser and other farm inputs to boost production.
• Encourage all year round farming by fixing dilapidated dams. While trillions of naira of foreign loans might have been secured for this, there is a need to be intentional about results and results only.
• We must never repeat the mistake of the anchor borrowers programme (ABP) by just throwing money at problems believing these problems would magically solve themselves. There is a need for intentionality, clear timelines and KPIs and guarantee value for every kobo spent.
• Post harvest losses which could be as high as 80% must be reduced to almost zero with modern storage, improved infrastructure and better transportation between farms\villages and the markets/cities.
• Do not ask people to pray in the event of lack of rainfall. Instead of that use technology such as cloud seeding to make rain to fall.
• We must focus on our competitive advantage instead of inefficiently trying to produce everything. We can proudly import what we do not have capacity for now while building that capacity. For example rice.

These are only a few solutions that can be implemented with the urgency of now.

3. Problem- Cost of living crisis. Some even go as far as selling their own babies to feed and pay rent! It is that bad.

Solutions-

• To demonstrate empathy the political class inclusive of the president must demonstrate beyond the shadow of a doubt that they too are enduring same hardships that Nigerians are suffering. This would build confidence, understanding from the people and followership.       As leadership is about being exemplary and doing same thing you want others to do. So, stop losing the plot by enduring same things you ask your citizens to endure.
• Cut the cost of governance by 90% or by much as possible by making do with just the barest. Oransaye report is outdated, so update it within a week and implement it within weeks. The savings from this should be used to support the most vulnerable Nigerians in a clear and transparent way.
• The CBN has not done enough to keep a lid on money supply as it has reached all an all-time high of over 101 trillion naira now. Because inflation is always and everywhere monetary in nature. So, stop the growth in money supply and not currency in circulation (CIC) as the CBN likes to demonise CIC in an way that doesn’t make sense.
• Ways and Means Advances must be scrapped completely and urgently too and never be increased as was recently done. How many people; including yours sincerely; would not feel the temptation to just print money if it is within their powers to do so whenever the urgent need for money arises? So stop it entirely as it is always subject to abuse and has caused more problems and proven our undoing eventually.
• No one should strip the CBN of its operational independence as the Senate tried to do. It is unwise, shortsighted and dangerous. In fact, to the contrary what the CBN needs now is more independence from politicians not less.
• Do everything to boost exports particularly from Nano, Small, Medium-Scaled Enterprises (NSMSMEs) as they have been punching below their weight. Diversifying Nigeria’s exports from oil and gas needs to be done urgently. If we cannot export goods immediately then lets export services to grow the naira and make it the strong currency Nigerians like it to be.

These are only few immediate solutions out of dozens that I have.

In conclusion, Nigeria might be on its knees at the moment which basically self-inflicted through gross incompetence and bad governance, consequently, there is a need to be drastic in urgent in measures to stop the descend in its tracks. As Nigeria is a country of  a huge population and treating things with levity or at snail-pace would not cut it.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced plans to introduce a Retail Dutch Auction System (DAS) next Wednesday to tackle the mounting unmet foreign exchange (FX) demand from end users.

According to a circular issued by the apex bank, this initiative aims to alleviate the growing pressure in the FX market and stabilize the naira’s exchange rate, which closed at N1,617.08/$1 on Friday amidst severe demand pressure.

Thus, the CBN has directed all authorized dealer banks to submit a detailed and legitimate list of outstanding FX demands from their end users.

The circular states: “The CBN has noted growing unmet FX demand from end users with banks. This has continued to increase the demand pressure in the FX market with adverse impact on the exchange rate of the naira. Authorized dealer banks, therefore, are to provide to the CBN a legitimate list of all outstanding FX demand by end users.”

The comprehensive list must include customer details such as name, address, contact information, Bank Verification Number (BVN), account number, Tax Identification Number (TIN), transaction type, Form A or Form M, and Letter of Credit (LC) Number. Authorized dealers must submit this information via email to EMDEXDealers@cbn.gov.ng by Tuesday, August 6, 2024, using the provided template.

Additionally, accounts of prospective customers must be naira-backed to qualify for participation in the auction, ensuring immediate settlement upon confirmation of bid acceptance by the CBN.

The Retail Dutch Auction System (DAS) will be conducted by the CBN on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, to mitigate the demand for eligible transactions through authorized dealers. This approach is designed to stabilize the FX market and support the naira.

What You Should Know About DAS

The DAS is a direct sale of Forex by the CBN through the banks to the end users of the forex. Under this system, an auctioneer (CBN) starts with a very high price, incrementally lowering the price until someone places a bid.

It is based solely on the actual demand for forex by the end users. As such, the authorized dealers will only bid for forex based on the number of actual requests they have received from their end users. This means, that if an authorized dealer has received only $50,000 requests from its end users, it can only bid for that $50,000 from the CBN auction.

This approach, which is expected to eliminate speculation, is being deployed by the CBN against the backdrop of failures of its previous initiatives to address the FX crisis.

For instance, in July, Nigeria’s central bank sold at least $377.17 million to authorized FX dealers. Aside from the FX sales to authorized dealers, the CBN announced the approval of the sales of FX to eligible BDCs to meet the demand for invisible transactions in a decisive step to strengthen the naira on Thursday, July 18, 2024. The bank announced that the sum of $20,000 is to be sold to each BDC at the rate of N1,450/$1.

DAS has been touted by experts as a viable solution to Nigeria’s FX crisis, especially in the absence of adequate liquidity. They argue that the willing buyer and willing seller mechanism is not the best for price discovery.

Amidst Nigerians’ demand for the full restoration of fuel subsidies, following ongoing protests against bad governance across the country, experts believe the naira depreciation is a more serious challenge than the cost of petrol.

“The big elephant in the room is the exchange rate, not fuel subsidy. If the exchange rate had remained in the N800 corridor, inflationary pressures wouldn’t have been so high. The exchange rate is tied to productivity and the ability to mobilize foreign capital. We can’t borrow our way out of this,” Seun Onigbinde, founder of BudgIT, stated.

DAS is expected to lower the price of dollar in the official market and reduce prices in the parallel market.

BROADCAST BY HIS EXCELLENCY BOLA AHMED TINUBU, PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMED
FORCES OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
ON THE NATIONWIDE PROTEST

DATE: SUNDAY 4TH AUGUST 2024

My fellow Nigerians,

1. I speak to you today with a heavy heart and a sense of responsibility, aware of the turmoil and violent protests unleashed in some of our states.

2. Notably among the protesters were young Nigerians who desired a better and more progressive country where their dreams, hopes, and personal aspirations would be fulfilled.

3. I am especially pained by the loss of lives in Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna and other states, the destruction of public facilities in some states, and the wanton looting of supermarkets and shops, contrary to the promise of protest organisers that the protest would be peaceful across the country. The destruction of properties sets us back as a nation, as scarce resources will be again used to restore them.

4. I commiserate with the families and relations of those who have died in the protests. We must stop further bloodshed, violence and destruction.

5. As President of this country, I must ensure public order. In line with my constitutional oath to protect the lives and property of every citizen, our government will not stand idly by and allow a few with a clear political agenda to tear this nation apart.

6. Under the circumstances, I hereby enjoin protesters and the organisers to suspend any further protest and create room for dialogue, which I have always acceded to at the slightest opportunity. Nigeria requires all hands on deck and needs us all – regardless of age, party, tribe, religion or other divides, to work together in reshaping our destiny as a nation. To those who have taken undue advantage of this situation to threaten any section of this country, be warned: The law will catch up with you. There is no place for ethnic bigotry or such threats in the Nigeria we seek to build.

7. Our democracy progresses when the constitutional rights of every Nigerian are respected and protected. Our law enforcement agencies should continue to ensure the full protection of lives and properties of innocent citizens in a responsible manner.

8. My vision for our country is one of a just and prosperous nation where each person may enjoy the peace, freedom, and meaningful livelihood that only democratic good governance can provide – one that is open, transparent and accountable to the Nigerian people.

9. For decades, our economy has remained anaemic and taken a dip because of many misalignments that have stunted our growth. Just over a year ago, our dear country, Nigeria, reached a point where we couldn’t afford to continue the use of temporary solutions to solve long-term problems for the sake of now and our unborn generations. I therefore took the painful yet necessary decision to remove fuel subsidies and abolish multiple foreign exchange systems which had constituted a noose around the economic jugular of our Nation and impeded our economic development and progress.

10. These actions blocked the greed and the profits that smugglers and rent-seekers made. They also blocked the undue subsidies we had extended to our neighbouring countries to the detriment of our people, rendering our economy prostrate. These decisions I made were necessary if we must reverse the decades of economic mismanagement that didn’t serve us well. Yes, I agree, the buck stops on my table. But I can assure you that I am focused fully on delivering the governance to the people – good governance for that matter.

11. In the past 14 months, our government has made significant strides in rebuilding the foundation of our economy to carry us into a future of plenty and abundance. On the fiscal side, aggregate government revenues have more than doubled, hitting over 9.1 trillion Naira in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023 due to our efforts at blocking leakages, introducing automation, and mobilising funding creatively without additional burden on the people. Productivity is gradually increasing in the non-oil sector, reaching new levels and taking advantage of the opportunities in the current economic ambience

12. My dear brothers and sisters, we have come this far. Coming from a place where our country spent 97% of all our revenue on debt service; we have been able to reduce that to 68% in the last 13 months. We have also cleared legitimate outstanding foreign exchange obligations of about $5billion without any adverse impact on our programmes.

13. This has given us more financial freedom and the room to spend more money on you, our citizens, to fund essential social services like education and healthcare. It has also led to our State, and Local Governments receiving the highest allocations ever in our country’s history from the Federation Account.

14. We have also embarked on major infrastructure projects across the country. We are working to complete inherited projects critical to our economic prosperity, including roads, bridges, railways, power, and oil and gas developments. Notably, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Sokoto-Badagry Highway projects will open up 16 connecting states, creating thousands of jobs and boosting economic output through trade, tourism and cultural integration

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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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!

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

23. 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.

24. 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.

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

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

27. 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

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. My dear Nigerians, especially our youth, I have heard you loud and clear. I understand the pain and frustration that drive these protests, and I want to assure you that our government is committed to listening and addressing the concerns of our citizens.

32. But we must not let violence and destruction tear our nation apart. We must work together to build a brighter future, where every Nigerian can live with dignity and prosperity.

33. The task before us is a collective one, and I am leading the charge as your President. A lot of work has gone into stabilising our economy and I must stay focused on ensuring that the benefits reach every single Nigerian as promised.

34. My administration is working very hard to improve and expand our national infrastructure and create more opportunities for our young people.

35. Let nobody misinform and miseducate you about your country or tell you that your government does not care about you. Although there have been many dashed hopes in the past, we are in a new era of Renewed Hope. We are working hard for you, and the results will soon be visible and concrete for everyone to see, feel, and enjoy.

36. Let us work together to build a brighter future for ourselves and for generations to come. Let us choose hope over fear, unity over division, and progress over stagnation. The economy is recovering; Please, don’t shut out its oxygen. Now that we have been enjoying democratic governance for 25 years, do not let the enemies of democracy use you to promote an unconstitutional agenda that will set us back on our democratic journey. FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER!

37. In conclusion, security operatives should continue to maintain peace, law, and order in our country following the necessary conventions on human rights, to which Nigeria is a signatory. The safety and security of all Nigerians are paramount.

38. Thank God — and Thank you for your attention, and may God continue to bless our great Nation. Thank you very much.