When Nigeria floated the naira in mid-2023 and ended its decades-long fuel subsidy, economists called it bold. Investors called it overdue. And ordinary Nigerians? They called it familiar, painfully so. For many, the current reform agenda feels like a revival of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of 1986. Then, as now, the government devalued the naira, removed subsidies, liberalised trade, and promised a new path to growth. Then, as now, inflation followed, food prices spiked, and public trust eroded. But this isn’t SAP 2.0, at le
When Nigeria floated the naira in mid-2023 and ended its decades-long fuel subsidy, economists called it bold. Investors called it overdue. And ordinary Nigerians? They called it familiar, painfully so. For many, the current reform agenda feels like a revival of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of 1986. Then, as now, the government devalued the naira, removed subsidies, liberalised trade, and promised a new path to growth. Then, as now, inflation followed, food prices spiked, and public trust eroded. But this isn’t SAP 2.0, at le