The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called on the Federal Government to accelerate measures to create a more competitive business environment, insisting that Nigeria’s transition from economic stabilisation to widespread prosperity must translate into lower production costs, stronger industrial capacity, increased investment and improved living standards.

LCCI President, Leye Kupoluyi, said the President’s claim that the country was moving from reform to prosperity must be measured not only by macroeconomic indicators but also by the extent to which Nigerian businesses can invest, produce, employ, compete and expand.

He said the test must equally include whether households were experiencing improvements in purchasing power and living standards.

Kupoluyi stressed that the next phase of the economic programme must be defined by a relentless focus on reducing the cost of doing business, expanding productive capacity, and creating an environment in which investment decisions can be made with greater confidence.

He said lowering the cost of producing and moving goods was perhaps the most important economic challenge confronting Nigerian businesses, noting that manufacturers, farmers, logistics operators, retailers and millions of small and medium-sized enterprises continued to face elevated costs arising from energy, transportation, multiple taxation, infrastructure gaps, financing, regulatory charges, insecurity and logistics inefficiencies.

He said the next phase of economic policy should therefore place enterprise competitiveness at the centre of economic management.

Beyond the deceleration of inflation from its peak, Kupoluyi said Nigerians needed to see sustained moderation in the prices of food, transportation, energy and other essential goods.

“Gross domestic product growth must generate productive employment and expand household incomes, while FX market stability must enable businesses to access FX predictably and at costs that allow them to remain competitive. The ultimate test of the reforms is whether businesses can produce more at lower cost and households can afford more with their incomes,” he said.

Welcoming the President’s commitment to bringing factories back to life and promoting Nigerian-made products, he stressed that Nigeria could not sustainably achieve mass employment and broad-based prosperity without a strong manufacturing and industrial base.

He urged the Federal Government to move rapidly from announcements to implementation by reducing industrial energy costs, improving electricity reliability for productive enterprises, accelerating gas-to-industry projects and expanding access to affordable, long-term financing for manufacturers.

He also called for measures to address infrastructure deficits in industrial clusters, improve access to working capital for SMEs, reduce regulatory and administrative costs, strengthen local supply chains, promote exports of manufactured and processed Nigerian products and prevent policies that unintentionally increase production costs.

A competitive manufacturing sector, he said, would simultaneously address several of Nigeria’s challenges, including unemployment, low productivity, import dependence, export diversification, technology transfer and government revenue.

Kupoluyi said the most sustainable solution to the cost-of-living crisis was to increase the supply of affordable goods and services while expanding productive employment and household incomes.

Welcoming the President’s call for businesses to expand production and compete globally, he regretted that businesses alone could not deliver prosperity, noting that the government creates the policy and institutional environment within which businesses make long-term investment decisions.

He called for regular engagement between the government and the private sector on policy implementation, as well as a mechanism for tracking the impact of major policies on enterprises.

Identifying five priority areas for government action, he listed regulatory predictability, regulatory efficiency, infrastructure delivery, access to affordable finance and fair competition.

He said a dynamic private sector required a level playing field where businesses competed on productivity, innovation and efficiency rather than access to administrative privileges.

“We need to retain existing investors while attracting new domestic and foreign capital. Nigeria must compete for investment by making it easier, faster and more predictable to establish and operate businesses. But the government must also guard against the dumping of foreign products here and take a closer look at expatriate privileges to prevent foreigners from taking over Nigerian retail shops.”

Kupoluyi said Nigeria had the scale, population, natural resources and entrepreneurial capacity to become a major production and export hub in Africa.

“To achieve this would require deliberate investment in standards, certification, trade logistics, industrial clusters, trade finance, export infrastructure and market access. Nigerian businesses should be positioned not merely to sell into the African market but to establish Nigeria as a production base for the continent,” he said.

He also urged the government to work closely with the private sector to ensure that skills-development programmes responded to actual labour-market requirements rather than simply producing certificates.