President Bola Tinubu has responded to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s demand for an account of approximately N30 trillion in Federation revenues and subsidy savings, presenting a comprehensive three-year economic reform scorecard that details how N15.8 trillion in subsidy savings was mobilised and deployed.
The President, in a message to Nigerians ahead of the scorecard presentation, said the document provides an account of what the reforms have achieved, their costs, and the greater economic harms the government believes were avoided by taking decisive action.
“Today, your government presents The Reforms Scorecard,” Tinubu said, adding that Nigerians deserve to see the numbers and understand what the reforms mean for households, businesses, and the country.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, who presented the scorecard at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, disclosed that between June 2023 and December 2025, subsidy savings mobilised N15.8 trillion for the Federation, with N5.4 trillion accruing to the Federal Government and N10.4 trillion shared among states and local governments.
Oyedele said the reforms also generated N3.1 trillion in incremental independent revenue, mainly from remittances from government-owned entities, while the government raised N11.9 trillion through incremental borrowing during the period. Together, these provided the Federal Government with approximately N20.4 trillion in incremental resources .
According to the scorecard, the government recorded N30.64 trillion in incremental expenditure over the same period. The largest expenditure items were N9.39 trillion spent on wage adjustments, minimum wage increases, and allowances for public servants, while N9.37 trillion went into servicing external debt following the impact of exchange-rate depreciation. A total of N6.5 trillion was deployed to strategic infrastructure projects, and N3.14 trillion was allocated to electricity subsidies .
“We are not here to pretend these reforms were painless. We are here to show you, honestly and with the numbers, what they cost, the benefits they delivered, and the harm they prevented,” Oyedele said .
The Finance Minister acknowledged that while the reforms delivered measurable fiscal and macroeconomic gains, household welfare remained a work in progress . “On food and household welfare, our own assessment is candid: this remains work in progress,” he said .
Oyedele pointed out that without the reforms, the country could have faced a worse scenario of high prices, mounting debts, and macroeconomic instability.
He stated that petrol could have become difficult to obtain at the former official price while selling for more than N3,000 per litre on the black market, while the difference between official and parallel-market exchange rates could have risen above 150 per cent, compared with less than five per cent currently .
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the reforms were necessary to redirect resources previously committed to an unsustainable subsidy regime towards investments capable of delivering sustainable value to Nigerians.
“Citizens have a right to know what resources have been freed up, what these resources mean for the Federation, and how the benefits of reform are being translated into tangible improvements in their lives,” Idris said.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, said the administration inherited an economy with one of the lowest revenue-to-GDP ratios globally, noting that the government also inherited more than $6 billion in unpaid petroleum import obligations. He said the reforms were designed to halt financial leakages and restore confidence in the Nigerian economy .
The scorecard also highlighted improvements in key macroeconomic indicators, with headline inflation falling to 15.91 per cent in June 2026 from 22.41 per cent in May 2023, while food inflation dropped from 24.82 per cent to 17.52 per cent . Gross foreign reserves rose to $52.5 billion from approximately $35 billion, while real GDP growth improved to 3.89 per cent from 2.31 per cent.
Atiku had earlier challenged Tinubu to publish a detailed ledger of Federation revenues, deductions, savings, and transfers, saying his reconciliation of published figures had identified approximately N28 trillion requiring explanation up to June 2026, with the July figures pushing the cumulative amount towards N30 trillion .
“The question President Tinubu must answer remains painfully simple: Where is the money?” Atiku said .
The former Vice President also questioned the government’s continued borrowing despite claims of increased revenues and savings. “If these trillions genuinely exist as savings, where are they and why is Nigeria borrowing so aggressively?” he asked .
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