TINUBU MEETS DELOITTE AFRICA DELEGATION, DEFENDS TOUGH ECONOMIC REFORMS AS ‘BITTER MEDICINE’ WORKING FOR NIGERIA
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ABUJA, NIGERIA – President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday defended his administration’s sweeping financial and fiscal policy changes as "bitter medicine" that is laying a solid foundation for the country's economic future.
The President made these remarks at the State House in Abuja while receiving a high-level delegation from Deloitte Africa, led by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ruwayda Redfearn. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, and the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji.
Foundational Reforms vs. Short-Term Applause
Addressing the Deloitte delegation, President Tinubu acknowledged the public friction caused by his administration's bold economic reforms—including the removal of the petrol subsidy, the unification of the foreign exchange market, and the sweeping modernization of the national tax system.
"Yes, reforms are difficult. It has not been a McDonald’s customer relationship but a harvester of good things, if implemented well, and that is what we are about. Yes, some issues are difficult to take—the bitter medicine—but it is working well. For the economy, Nigeria is making serious foundational progress." — President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
The President pointed out that three years of consistent reform implementation have steadily stabilized the macroeconomic landscape, yielding positive growth indicators and gradually rebuilding global investor confidence.
A Call to Invest in Nigeria’s Dynamic Youth
Recalling his own early career days in Chicago where he "cut his childhood accounting teeth," President Tinubu praised Deloitte's legendary training culture. He urged the multinational professional services network to actively support Nigeria's economic growth by expanding its youth training, capacity-building, and recruitment pipelines locally.
Echoing the President’s call, Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele urged the Deloitte leadership to focus heavily on structural capacity-building for Nigeria's vibrant youth population.
Deloitte Pledges Support for Economic Transformation
Deloitte Africa CEO Ruwayda Redfearn highlighted the firm's immense global reach—boasting over 500,000 employees worldwide, including 6,000 across Africa—and confirmed that the firm's global revenue reached $74 billion in 2025.
Redfearn expressed Deloitte's readiness to leverage its vast digital and business transformation capabilities to support Nigeria's ongoing fiscal reforms.
Adding to this commitment, the CEO of Deloitte West Africa, Yomi Olugbenro, assured the President that the firm is fully aligned with his administration's long-term vision.
"Where we are at the moment, we believe that the ground has been solidly laid," Olugbenro said. "The bigger work is really about how to cascade some of those big reforms further down... to truly extract more value and deliver the dividends of democracy to ordinary Nigerians on the street".
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