Nigeria @66: OPS demands productivity gains from reforms

By Yinka Kolawole

As Nigeria marks its 66th independence anniversary, Nigeria’s organised private sector (OPS) has challenged the Federal Government to turn recent macroeconomic gains into measurable improvements in productivity, business competitiveness, jobs, household purchasing power, warning that stabilisation will have limited impact unless it lowers the cost of producing and living in Nigeria.

In separate statements, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) said Nigeria’s next reform phase should shift decisively from stabilisation to productivity, investment, production, exports and private-sector job creation.

President of LCCI, Engr. Leye Kupoluyi, said the reforms, including exchange-rate adjustments and monetary and fiscal measures, had produced encouraging signs of macroeconomic stabilisation, but stressed that the ultimate test was their impact on businesses and households.

He stated: “Macroeconomic stabilisation must ultimately translate into improved welfare, stronger purchasing power, lower production costs and more jobs. This remains the critical test of the economic recovery.”

Kupoluyi said businesses, particularly manufacturers and MSMEs, have continued to contend with high electricity and alternative-energy costs, expensive credit, logistics, imported raw materials, regulatory compliance and multiple taxes.

He called for a comprehensive industrial competitiveness programme focused on dedicated industrial power solutions, expanded credit guarantees and development finance, predictable trade and customs policies, local production of industrial inputs, and improved industrial and logistics infrastructure.

“Manufacturing must become the centerpiece of Nigeria’s job-creation strategy,” he said, urging government to move from isolated interventions to sustained measures that would make production in Nigeria more competitive than importing finished goods.

Similarly, Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, said Nigeria’s economic transformation remained incomplete, despite diversification across telecommunications, banking, construction, entertainment, digital services and large-scale investments in cement, fertiliser and refining.

Yusuf said the removal of petrol subsidy, exchange-rate reforms and revenue measures had addressed longstanding fiscal and foreign-exchange distortions, noting that the early macroeconomic gains deserved recognition.

“Those gains provide a stronger foundation, but they are yet to translate sufficiently into relief for households and firms,” he said.

He urged the government to prioritise power supply, security, ports and logistics, agricultural productivity, industrial competitiveness and enterprise-focused skills, while tying public support for industry to investment, efficiency and export performance.

Yusuf also called for coordinated action by the Federal, state and local governments to improve infrastructure, investment approvals, basic services and the business environment.

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