Get Guardian on GoogleNigeria must raise economic growth to 10 per cent, from the current level of about four per cent, and urgently address corruption, weak investment and low productivity to create jobs and lift millions of citizens out of poverty, prominent economic leaders have warned.
The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II; businessman Atedo Peterside; former President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina; Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani; and former Securities and Exchange Commission Director-General, Arunma Oteh, gave the warning yesterday, at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference in Abuja.
They argued that Nigeria’s economic challenge goes beyond achieving positive gross domestic product (GDP) growth, insisting that reforms must translate into higher household incomes, productive employment, improved public services and better living standards.
The speakers identified weak investment, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, underinvestment in human capital and the slow adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies as major obstacles to sustainable economic expansion.
Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, cautioned that improvements in macroeconomic indicators could create a misleading impression of economic recovery if the welfare of ordinary Nigerians continued to deteriorate.
While acknowledging that the economy was growing by about 4.5 per cent and some indicators had improved, he said GDP growth alone could not establish whether economic reforms were delivering meaningful benefits to citizens.
He pointed to the decline in GDP per capita since 2023, influenced by economic growth and currency depreciation, as a reason to question whether aggregate economic gains were translating into improved living standards.
According to him, the real measures of economic progress should include household incomes, employment, access to healthcare and education, nutrition and poverty reduction.
The implication, he argued, was that an economy could record growth while many citizens continued to struggle with the cost of living and limited access to economic opportunities.
Sanusi also warned against excessive dependence on portfolio investments, which can be driven by attractive short-term returns and reverse when market conditions change.
He called for deeper structural reforms, greater investment in infrastructure, stronger accountability and transparency, and reliable economic data to guide policy decisions.
His intervention underscored the need for the government to move beyond headline economic statistics and demonstrate how reforms are improving the productive capacity of the economy and the welfare of households.
Peterside was more direct about what he considered the central obstacle to achieving the growth Nigeria needs, blaming corruption, political patronage and regulatory harassment for discouraging investment and weakening private enterprise.
He argued that growth of about four per cent was inadequate for a country with Nigeria’s development challenges, insisting that the economy needed to expand by as much as 10 per cent to generate sufficient jobs and improve living standards.
Achieving that target, he said, would require a substantial increase in investment relative to GDP, alongside an environment in which businesses could operate, expand and create employment without arbitrary interference.
Peterside accused government officials and regulators of subjecting businesses, particularly small and medium-scale enterprises, to harassment and arbitrary demands that raise operating costs and discourage expansion.
He also criticised abuses in public procurement, warning that inflated contract costs divert resources from infrastructure and essential public services while reducing the economic returns on government expenditure.
For Adesina, Nigeria’s prospects for achieving sustained growth depend substantially on how effectively it invests in its young population.
The former AfDB president argued that Africa’s expanding population should be treated as an economic asset rather than a development burden, but warned that demographic growth would not automatically produce prosperity.
He said governments must invest deliberately in education, healthcare, nutrition, technical skills and access to finance to enable young people to participate productively in the economy.
Without such investment, he warned, the continent could fail to convert its demographic advantage into stronger productivity, business creation and employment.
Adesina urged African governments to equip young people not only to seek jobs but also to establish enterprises, develop technologies and create solutions to economic and social challenges.
He also called for greater investment in digital capabilities and artificial intelligence, warning against a future in which Africa remained dependent on technologies developed elsewhere.
Tijani identified technology, particularly artificial intelligence, as another critical avenue through which Nigeria could raise productivity and accelerate economic transformation.
He argued that natural resource endowments alone do not guarantee prosperity, stressing that countries become wealthier by applying knowledge, technology and technical expertise to increase the value of their resources.
Using Nigeria’s telecommunications revolution as an example, the minister cited the introduction of GSM services in 2001 as evidence of how deliberate policy, private investment and competition could transform an industry and unlock wider economic opportunities.
He said artificial intelligence presented a similar opportunity, but Nigeria would need reliable digital infrastructure, computing capacity, skilled workers, research capabilities and effective institutions to translate the technology into economic value. Tijani disclosed that the Federal Government was pursuing an approximately 90,000-kilometre open-access fibre-optic network, backed by an estimated $2 billion investment, to expand broadband connectivity nationwide.
He also highlighted plans to strengthen shared computing infrastructure and develop a Nigerian large language model that can support local languages, including Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, as well as Nigerian-accented English.
The minister said the government’s 3 Million Technical Talent programme was intended to develop the skills required for participation in the global digital economy, while the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy would guide the country’s approach to AI adoption and development.
He also cited an AI community of practice, with initial support of $150,000, as part of efforts to encourage collaboration and practical applications of the technology.
Meanwhile, Oteh called for a broader approach to mobilising capital for development, arguing that governments alone could not provide all the financing needed to expand productive capacity and create prosperity.
The convener of the conference said capital markets, pension funds, financial institutions and private investors had important roles to play in directing long-term funds towards productive enterprises and infrastructure.
She advocated wider participation in capital markets to enable more Nigerians to invest in businesses and share in the returns from economic growth.
Oteh also highlighted the potential of pension funds to support long-term investment and broaden wealth creation, provided appropriate safeguards and investment frameworks were established.
She said Africa’s youthful population made investment in education, skills and employment increasingly urgent, noting that about 70 per cent of the continent’s population was under the age of 30.
