•Wale Edun
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has said the recent 14 per cent tariff imposed by the United States on Nigerian exports will have a negligible effect on the Nigerian economy.
Edun stated this at the inaugural Corporate Governance Forum organised by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated in Abuja today, reports The PUNCH.
While recognising the seriousness of escalating global tariff conflicts, Edun emphasised that Nigeria remains relatively insulated from severe impacts, given the exclusion of oil and mineral exports—Nigeria’s primary exports to the US—from the tariff.
He highlighted the comparatively moderate 14 per cent tariff as favourable when placed alongside Vietnam’s 46 per cent and China’s 34 per cent tariffs.
“Nigeria’s exports to the US was N1.8tn, N2.6tn and N5.5tn in 2022-2024, respectively. Fortunately, oil and mineral exports accounted for 92 per cent, implying oil and mineral exports amounted to N5.08tn in value, while non-oil was just N0.44 trillion. Consequently, the tariff effect on exports is negligible if we sustain our oil and minerals export volume,” he said.
However, Edun admitted the government’s economic management team is closely monitoring the global situation.
“We are going back to the drawing board to look at our budget all over again, because we have to see what changes have been made in the assumptions that underlay the production of that budget and the reality over the first quarter and even projected into the future,” he said.
Addressing the broader state of the Nigerian economy, Edun praised the stabilisation achieved under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
On government borrowing strategies, the minister explained a deliberate pivot from debt towards equity and revenue generation.
He said Nigeria had progressively transitioned from concessional funding, bilateral loans, and Eurobonds to prioritising equity investments and public-private partnerships.
This shift aims to optimise state-owned enterprises and leverage private sector capital and expertise.
Specifically, Edun cited successful initiatives like the Highway Development and Management Initiative, which recently saw private sector involvement in the Benin-Asaba highway concession, significantly reducing transport time from four hours to one hour.
On corporate governance, Edun stressed its critical importance, especially with entities such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company preparing for a potential Initial Public Offering.
He described the newly introduced MOFI Corporate Governance Scorecard as an essential benchmark, encouraging companies to adopt best practices to attract private sector investment.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, described the ongoing corporate governance reforms as critical and urgently needed for Nigeria’s State-Owned Enterprises, especially within the power sector.
He noted that evolving economic complexities and rising public expectations had made better governance practices essential.
According to him, the unbundling of the Transmission Company of Nigeria into the Nigeria Independent System Operator and the Transmission Service Provider was a significant structural reform aimed at improving transparency, clarity, and value creation.
Commending MOFI for championing better corporate governance across government enterprises, the minister emphasised that improved governance practices were pivotal to safeguarding public resources and aligning operations with national developmental goals such as reliability, expanded access, and energy transition.
The Chairman, Board of Directors, Ministry of Finance Incorporated, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, said the forum was one of the rare public appearances the organisation makes to demonstrate its commitment to institutionalising results-based corporate governance in Nigeria’s public sector.
He explained that MOFI had implemented most elements of the newly introduced Corporate Governance Scorecard, including defining clear visions, missions, and long-term strategic plans.
He added that MOFI had established strong internal structures, such as a robust internal audit system reporting directly to the board, comprehensive conflict-of-interest guidelines, whistleblower policies, and risk management frameworks to ensure full transparency and accountability.
Usman stated that assessments of corporate governance practices in portfolio companies would be conducted by an independent third-party evaluator to guarantee objectivity.
He noted that while the portfolio companies would be eligible for awards based on their governance performance, MOFI itself would only be assessed based on the average scores of all companies under its management, incentivising MOFI to continuously drive improvement among these organisations.
On his part, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of MOFI, Dr Armstrong Takang, lamented the poor governance records among Nigerian state-owned enterprises, disclosing that out of 52 companies in MOFI’s portfolio, only 20 had published audited financial accounts over the past three years.
Takang highlighted that governance failures were often due not only to ineffective decisions but also to delayed or avoided decision-making.
He pointed out that such inaction significantly impacted economic growth and hindered Nigeria’s ambition to become a $1tn economy in the near future.
According to him, Nigeria currently faces an inflection point, especially considering the recent global economic turbulence triggered by tariff conflicts, notably former US President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs.
However, he said the current economic challenges provided an opportunity for Nigeria to reflect deeply on its corporate governance structures and reposition its state-owned enterprises to attract equity financing rather than relying excessively on debt.
