Professor Tunji Olaopa

Professor Tunji OlaopaPresident Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is transformational as shown through the gains it has recorded in different sectors of the nation’s economy, Prof. Tunji Olaopa has declared.

Olaopa who is the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission spoke at *the “1st International* Conference on Public Policy, Governance and Development” organised by the Department of Public Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, on Monday , May 26, 2025.

In his keynote lecture entitled “Building a Promising Future in Africa through Policy Re-Evaluation: The Defining Issues in Perspective”, Olaopa decried a deficit of good governance in the past with an enduring positive developmental impact on the citizens.

He lamented that in the whole of the African continent, development at the country level has been scant except in Botswana, Rwanda, South Africa, Mauritius and Ethiopia. For him, it is this poor development on the continent that has rendered the Renewed Hope Agenda imperative.

He said that in different ways, the agenda has expressed its potential to usher the country into an era of grand development. Highlighting some areas where the Renewed Hope Agenda has made great impact , Olaopa urged scholars and researchers to contribute to the scheme.

He said: ” This conversation for me is therefore relevant as an opportunity to challenge scholars and policy researchers as change agents to come on board the moving train of progress being piloted with the benefit of the leadership sophistication of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the imperative need for all hands to be on deck to deepen and consolidate the game-changing eco-system and public trust that has built up for a transformational journey with great promise.

“The Renewed Hope story-line is particularly auspicious because the crisis of development and of democracy in Africa has become especially worrisome, not just for the African stakeholders, but the entire world.

“The success story that is building up indeed provides a scholarly ambience for benchmarking analysis of emerging issues against celebrated strides of high-performing states across the globe and therefore the ventilation of their benefits for learning application to country-level transformational journeys across Africa. This is to say that many of the poster states in the East Asia like Malaysia, Singapore, and emerging powers like China and India and other BRICS countries were in the same league with Nigeria a few decades ago. They have however charted their different paths to the different destinations.

” As Nigeria writes its transformation narratives through the renewed hope prospective, scholars have the opportunity to make research inputs as policy intelligence and policy-engaged research drawing evidence from those things that these countries did differently that Nigeria needs to draw on as lessons of experience for deepening and consolidating the birth of a new dawn that will soon envelope us .”

Olaopa noted how the agenda has transformed the nation’s tax system. According to him, the tax landscape is undergoing a significant overhaul as shown in an increase in tax exemption for small businesses from annual turnover of 25-50 million naira, reduction of the burden on businesses, and the rise in revenue collection efficiency.

He said that the agenda “introduces a range of tax incentives to stimulate growth in priority sectors. It also ensures that the poor are protected from adverse effects of tax increases, making it a progressive and equitable reform. It addresses the challenge of multiple and excessive taxation with the reduction in Company Income Tax which will ease the cost of doing business and improve the investment climate”.

He said that through the agenda, there is huge hope in agricultural productivity through the implementation of modern farming techniques and technology adoption that supports small-holder farmers to form clusters and cooperatives as they enjoy the economies of scale that come from large-scale farming. “Giant strides are also being made to encourage commercial farmers to adopt small-scale farmers in their region so that they can benefit from knowledge of improved agro-practices, leading to increased yields.
Enhanced access to farm inputs such as fertilizers and improved seeds is boosting crop yields nationwide through the implementation of the National Agricultural Growth Enhancement Scheme (NAGS) Agro-Pocket (AP).
Outstanding results have been recorded in several northern states, thereby reducing wheat importation and FOREX thereto. Cross River State has since been enlisted in the wheat farming programme based on identification of regions with suitable weather conditions. The
Implementation of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) programme in Kaduna, Kano, Imo, CRS, Ogun, Oyo, Kwara, FCT is significant in facilitating value-addition to farm produce instead of just sale of raw produce at farm gates; thereby ensuring creation of more jobs and also reducing post-harvest losses. There is also the implementation of dry season farming in most Northern states through the provision of irrigation facilities and infrastructure to reduce rain-fed farming and ensuring year-round agriculture and aggressive mechanisation programmes in beefing up present low-level tractorization in the country.”

In the power sector, Olaopa said that the giant strides recorded through the Renewed Hope Agenda were also evident. According to him, the agenda through its reform has paved the way for the emergence of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). To him, the NESI is already fast-tracking electricity projects and private investments into the power sector, “which is bound to resolve the sector’s persistent known historical problems in the medium-term.”

He added: “Shortly on assuming power PBAT moved decisively to decentralize the sector with amendment to the Nigeria Power Sector Reform Act (NPSRA) thus breaking the FGN monopoly in electricity generation, transmission, distribution and regulation by signing into law the NPSRA Act 2023. The state governments are therefore now able to participate in the NESI in their various states. Several states namely, Lagos, Enugu, Ondo and Ekiti have latched on to this major reform to begin setting up their own electricity regulators.

“The huge debt burden owed to operators in the power supply value chain has been taken on with the approval of N130 billion from the gas stabilisation fund to gas suppliers and with over $120 million dollar-denominated component. Inadequate metering of customers is being resolved by injecting 3.5 million meters including the 1.5 million meters injected through the World bank Distribution Support Recovery (DISREP) Programme and 2 million through the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI). These will go a long way to resolve chronic illiquidity challenge that the power sector has faced for decades.

“There has also been significant push towards alternative energy sources, especially solar mini-grid systems being installed in some FG facilities including the Presidential Villa to reduce their dependency and cost exposure. There is rural Electrification Agency (REA) intervention with solar mini-grid systems in some critical sectors like education (first set of those installed in universities already being commissioned), health (in teaching hospitals), agriculture (in some farming clusters to assist with irrigation systems and for improved livelihood in rural areas.”

Olaopa also highlighted developments in the maritime sector which according to him, has shown significant growth with increased revenues accruing to the national treasury. Noting that efforts to improve maritime security and safety had yielded significant positive results, he said that the upgrade of ports infrastructure including Apapa and Tin Can Island ports had translated to commendable operational efficiency.

“Overall, the blue economy concept in Nigeria has proved to be a veritable growth driver with great potential”, he said.

He said that the Renewed Hope Agenda had provided an impetus for governance reform as expressed in the creation of the Ministry of Regional Development which he described as “an ingenious administrative innovation” t0l09. hat “presents some sort of administrative
answer to the most critical national question bedeviling the nation’s defective and
dysfunctional federalism.

“Making it a move in the right direction to create regional economic corridors growth poles , with redoubled drive towards local government autonomy, presents great bottom-up people-centered potential for accelerated development and national socioeconomic transformation”, he added.