Nigeria @ 65: Economist Urges Focus On Diversification, Inclusive Growth

As Nigeria celebrates its 65th day of independence, the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has urged the authorities to prioritise cardinal areas for sustainable development.

The director/CEO of CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, stated that Nigeria indispensable absorption connected deepening economical diversification, strengthening governance and institutions, investing successful quality capital, accelerating infrastructure development, and ensuring inclusive growth, saying that these strategical interventions are important for unlocking the country’s economical potential, creating jobs, reducing poverty, and promoting shared prosperity.

He noted that “Nigeria’s economical past astatine 65 is 1 of resilience, missed opportunities, and tremendous untapped potential. The existent betterment docket presents a uncommon accidental to reset the system connected a way of stability, competitiveness, and shared prosperity.

“Seizing this infinitesimal volition necessitate accordant policies, organization strengthening, and a deliberate effort to guarantee that economical maturation translates into improved surviving standards for citizens.

According to Yusuf, the authorities has implemented bold reforms successful the past 2 years, including speech complaint unification, substance subsidy removal, and taxation argumentation adjustments. These measures person imposed short-term pain, precocious ostentation and reduced household purchasing power, but aboriginal signs of macroeconomic stabilisation are emerging.

“To prolong betterment momentum, these measures indispensable beryllium complemented by targeted societal extortion programs, currency transfers, nutrient information interventions, and job-creation initiatives to shield susceptible households and support nationalist support.”

He added that Nigeria’s estimated 230 cardinal colonisation is some a important accidental and a daunting challenge, saying that “infrastructure specified arsenic roads, power, housing, education, and healthcare remains grossly inadequate, undermining productivity and competitiveness. Aggressive infrastructure investment, leveraging public-private partnerships and innovative financing models, is nary longer optional but an urgent necessity.”

He stated that “persistent macroeconomic instability continues to measurement connected growth. The naira’s melodramatic depreciation, from being stronger than the U.S. dollar successful the 1970s to N1,600 per dollar successful 2024, has eroded purchasing power, raised accumulation costs, and discouraged investment.

“Rising nationalist indebtedness and unsustainable debt-service-to-revenue ratios person constrained the fiscal space, limiting governments’ capableness to money captious infrastructures.

“Policy priorities indispensable absorption connected restoring currency stableness done credible monetary policy, expanding overseas speech proviso by increasing non-oil exports, improving nationalist spending efficiency, plugging fiscal leakages, and raising non-oil gross without stifling backstage enterprise. The bully quality is that the system has been experiencing a singular grade of stableness implicit the past year.”

He disclosed that Nigeria has experienced 8 recessions since independence, successful 1967, 1975, 1978, 1981–1983, 1993, 2016, and 2020, mostly triggered by lipid terms shocks, fiscal mismanagement, oregon planetary crises. Each downturn revealed the aforesaid structural fragilities: dense reliance connected lipid revenues, anemic non-oil exports, and excessive import dependence.

“Building resilience volition necessitate export diversification, fiscal discipline, and the instauration of credible stabilisation mechanisms to guarantee stableness of authorities spending during periods of gross volatility.”