THE Chairman of the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics Ltd/GTE, Dele Oye, has urged the Federal Government to ensure that recent economic gains translate into improved living conditions for ordinary Nigerians.
News Point Nigeria reports that Oye acknowledged that the economic reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration had strengthened Nigeria’s macroeconomic stability and improved its overall economic position.
The position was contained in a statement titled “The Economy Is Stabilising. Now Let the People Feel It,” issued by Dele Oye, Chairman of the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics Ltd/GTE, in which he stressed that economic growth would have little meaning for citizens unless it resulted in lower food prices, more job opportunities and better living standards.
Oye said the government had taken several difficult steps, including removing the petrol subsidy, reforming the foreign exchange market, tightening monetary policy and rebuilding the country’s external reserves.
According to him, the measures had helped address some of the economic challenges that weakened the foundation of the Nigerian economy over the years.
He noted that Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves had risen to $53.11 billion as of August 24, 2026, describing the increase as evidence of stronger financial buffers.
Oye also cited the latest economic growth figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics, which showed that Nigeria’s economy grew by 4.43 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 3.89 per cent in the previous quarter.
He said the growth was recorded in both the oil and non-oil sectors, indicating that the economy was beginning to gain stronger momentum.
Despite these developments, Oye warned that rising reserves and economic growth would not automatically improve the welfare of Nigerians.
He referred to an assessment by the International Monetary Fund, which estimated that poverty remained high and that millions of Nigerians were facing food insecurity, noting that the figures demonstrated the gap between national economic performance and the daily experiences of households.
Oye therefore urged the government to prioritise policies that would make the benefits of economic reforms more visible in the daily lives of citizens.
He said Nigerians should acknowledge the progress made by the government while continuing to demand further action where economic improvements had yet to translate into prosperity.
According to him, the reforms had been politically difficult and placed pressure on citizens, but they also addressed long-standing economic distortions.
Oye said the government must now move beyond stabilising the economy and focus on creating productive jobs, reducing the cost of living and ensuring that economic growth leads to meaningful improvements for households across the country.
He maintained that macroeconomic stability was only the beginning and that the ultimate test of the reforms should be their impact on ordinary Nigerians. He urged the administration to convert stabilisation into what he described as “lived security” and ensure that the economy becomes not only investable, but also useful and affordable to families.
Oye further argued that the daily experiences of traders, farmers, teachers, workers, students and small businesses should remain the clearest measure of whether the reforms are succeeding.
He said the measure of the Tinubu economic project should therefore not merely be whether Nigeria can point to its reserves, growth rate, debt ratio or reform catalogue, but whether Nigerians can work, feed their families, run businesses and access public services without being overwhelmed by economic hardship.
While commending the administration for confronting distortions that previous governments had struggled to address, Oye cautioned that “courage at the beginning of reform must become competence at the point of delivery.”
“Nigeria has begun to stabilise. Now it must begin to heal. That is the passage from policy to people and from insight to impact,” Oye said.