Former Vice President and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has said the exit of foreign portfolio investment from Nigeria is yet another vote of no confidence in the economic management of President Bola Tinubu.
Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, noted that between January and July this year, foreign investors brought ₦513.36 billion into the Nigerian equities market but pulled out ₦779.43 billion, leaving a staggering net outflow of ₦266.07 billion.
According to him, the foreign outflows exceeded inflows every month during the period.
“The net outflow is about 11.7 times the ₦22.68 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2023,” he added.
The ADC presidential candidate said Nigerians were told that the Federal Government increased its domestic borrowing by 90.5 per cent to ₦24.7 trillion in just eight months, while government credit grew more than four times faster than credit to the private sector.
He accused Tinubu’s government of crowding Nigerian businesses out of the domestic credit market while foreign investors are taking their money and taking the exit door.
“It is a confidence verdict on the Tinubu economy,” he said.
Atiku stated that government borrowing is suffocating local businesses and eroding investors’ confidence.
He said President Tinubu is presiding over an economic catastrophe, adding, “Food prices have skyrocketed. Transportation costs are crushing families. Yet the same administration continues to congratulate itself on economic reforms.”
The former vice president argued that an economy cannot be said to be recovering when entrepreneurs cannot afford credit, manufacturers struggle with operating costs, households are becoming poorer, and investors are unwilling to keep their money in the country.
“The Tinubu administration may continue to manufacture impressive speeches and celebrate headline numbers, but investors are looking at the fundamentals — policy consistency, inflation, purchasing power, predictable regulation and the ability to earn sustainable real returns,” he said.
Atiku stated that Nigeria requires an economic policy that restores confidence, lowers the cost of doing business, makes energy and transportation affordable, encourages production and allows the private sector, rather than government borrowing, to drive growth.
This, he said, is the difference between Tinubu’s economics of government consumption and his own economics of private-sector production and household affordability.
“You cannot borrow the private sector dry, impoverish consumers and then advertise yourself to the world as an investment destination,” he added.
