Despite improvements in key economic indicators, experts have warned that Nigeria’s sweeping macroeconomic reforms may not deliver meaningful benefits to ordinary citizens unless lingering challenges such as power shortages, inflation, unemployment and weak productivity are urgently addressed.

The concerns were raised yesterday during the first panel session of the 20th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL), themed “Measuring Nigeria’s Economic Transformation: Macroeconomic Reforms or Market Reality?”

The session, chaired by Christine Sijuwade, Partner at Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, examined whether recent government reforms were translating into improvements in living standards, investment confidence and economic productivity.

Panellists acknowledged that Nigeria had undertaken some of the most far-reaching economic reforms in recent years, including exchange-rate liberalisation, fuel subsidy removal, monetary tightening, financial sector adjustments and efforts to strengthen domestic energy capacity.

While noting signs of stronger GDP growth and a gradual shift in investment towards infrastructure, energy and other scalable sectors, the experts argued that the true measure of success was in the impact of those reforms on everyday Nigerians.

According to them, policymakers must look beyond macroeconomic indicators and focus on the realities confronting households and businesses.

“We need to move from the macro to the micro economy. Economic reforms must touch the ordinary person on the street,” one of the panellists said.

The experts stressed that sustainable growth would remain elusive unless the real sector was empowered to create jobs and expand productive capacity.

They also linked rising insecurity to worsening unemployment, warning that joblessness had continued to fuel criminal activities across the country.

The panellists were unanimous in identifying Nigeria’s chronic electricity deficit as one of the biggest threats to economic transformation, insisting that productivity, industrial growth and competitiveness would remain constrained until the power crisis was decisively addressed.

Meanwhile, discussions during a second panel session on Nigeria’s newly enacted tax reforms reflected optimism about the country’s evolving tax administration framework.

The session, titled “From Legislation to Implementation: Nigeria’s Tax Reform,” reviewed four landmark tax laws signed by President Bola Tinubu on June 23, 2025, and which took effect on January 1, 2026.

Panellists, including Prof. Joseph Agbonika of Veritas University and tax expert Kelechi Ibe, described the reforms as a major step forward, arguing that the new laws had simplified tax administration and strengthened coordination among federal, state and local governments.

The conference also examined the effectiveness of trade reforms in driving economic growth.

Panellists observed that while Nigeria remains well-positioned to play a leading role in Africa’s economic integration agenda, the success of continental trade reforms would depend on sustained investments in infrastructure, financial integration and regulatory harmonisation.

They warned that unless the structural bottlenecks were addressed, the benefits of Africa’s trade liberalisation efforts could remain largely unrealised.