Nigeria aims to cut inflation to low single digits before the end of 2027, paving the way for sharply lower interest rates that could lower borrowing costs and support growth, Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele said this Monday.
“If you are growing at 4.43% and borrowing at close to 30%, imagine what is possible when you borrow at single-digit rates,” Oyedele said.
Nigeria’s headline inflation rate is stuck at around 15% with the benchmark interest rate at 23%, keeping cost-of-living pressures high just months before a national election.
Speaking at the Nigeria economic summit, Oyedele said the government’s reforms were already delivering benefits but that authorities wanted to accelerate gains so that household incomes rise faster than prices.
Lower inflation and interest rates would unlock investment and accelerate growth in Africa’s most populous country, he said.
Oyedele said policymakers were open to changing course on the reforms where evidence showed measures were ineffective, but urged critics to engage constructively with policy details rather than rely on “emotion” or incomplete narratives.
Since taking office in 2023, President Bola Tinubu has scrapped fuel subsidies, devalued the naira and pushed through reforms that have boosted public finances, foreign reserves and investor confidence. But the measures have also triggered Nigeria’s worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.
–Reuters–
