FG moves to track poverty, incomes to proof reforms are working

The Federal Government has disclosed plans to publish indicators tracking poverty, incomes and inequality to assess the impact of the President Bola Tinubu-led government’s economic reforms on the living standards of Nigerians.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this in his keynote address delivered yesterday at a conference organised by BusinessDay newspaper, in Lagos.

According to him, the planned scorecard is aimed at addressing criticism of the reform programme suggesting that gains in revenue, foreign exchange liquidity and investor confidence have yet to translate into meaningful relief for households facing high food, transport and living costs.

Oyedele said the government would assess “shared prosperity” using three measures – reductions in multidimensional poverty, increases in real income per capita, and lower inequality.

While the minister said inflation was easing, the foreign exchange market was functioning more efficiently and investor interest was returning, he acknowledged that macroeconomic stability alone would not be enough.

“A stable economy can still be a stagnant one if we become complacent,” he said.

Oyedele said the ministry of finance would be responsible for producing the scorecard but did not provide a timeline for publishing the indicators or say how frequently they would be updated.

𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖/𝕨𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖