FG should anchor economic growth on productivity, not inflation — NESG

By Babajide Komolafe

The Nigeria Economic Summit Group, NESG, has called on the Federal Government to anchor its economic growth objectives on productivity and not inflation.  

Making this call in a report on the outcome of the  Gross Domestic Product, GDP, rebasing exercise recently concluded by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS,  NESG said: “The rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP is more than a recalibration of economic statistics; it is a diagnostic scan revealing deep structural imbalances and fiscal vulnerabilities.

“While the upward revision in nominal GDP expands the statistical size of the economy, the real economy – where jobs, productivity, and welfare are determined – remains constrained. Closing this gap requires a coordinated, multi-pronged policy response that addresses both immediate recovery and long-term transformation.”

Stressing the need to anchor economic growth on productivity, NESG said: “With real GDP having grown only 4.4 percent since 2019, the priority is to stimulate value-added growth in sectors with high employment multipliers. This means targeted industrial policy, sector-specific competitiveness programmes, and technology adoption in agriculture and manufacturing.”

The economic think-tank group called for a state of emergency in the industrial sector, while also urging the government to address energy reliability, logistics bottlenecks, and input costs;  deploy blended finance, targeted infrastructure tax investment incentives, to and resuscitate manufacturing, oil & gas operations, and construction.

NESG further recommended that the federal government should: “Leverage agriculture’s resilience by moving beyond subsistence. Scale mechanisation, expand irrigation, improve rural transport, and build agro-processing hubs to raise productivity, value capture, and export potential;

“Integrate the Informal Sector into the Growth Model Design informal sector–centric trade and investment policies, given its resilience and dominance in GDP composition. Pathways to formalisation should be incentivised – easing business registration, extending credit, and providing social protections to micro and small enterprises.”  

Urging the need for Fiscal and Financial Recalibration, NESG, said: “The  rebased ratios should not encourage complacency. Expand non-oil revenue through digital tax systems, broaden the tax net, and enforce compliance. Improve spending efficiency via performance-based budgeting. Deepen financial intermediation to expand credit access and mobilise capital market funding for the real economy.”

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