Nigeria’s economic story is entering a more demanding phase. The country has spent considerable political and economic capital addressing inflation, foreign exchange distortions, revenue weakness and other longstanding imbalances. The Nigerian Economic Society’s 67th Annual Conference Presidential Address recognises these gains while making an important distinction: stabilisation is a platform, not the destination.
We believe this distinction deserves serious attention. An economy cannot be judged only by improving macroeconomic indicators if households and businesses continue to struggle to translate those improvements into better incomes, productive opportunities and greater economic security.
The federal government must therefore begin to demonstrate more clearly how economic stability will translate into jobs and shared prosperity. Stabilising the economy is necessary, but it becomes meaningful only when businesses can expand production, investors can deploy capital with greater confidence and Nigerians can find sustainable opportunities to earn.
The NES is right to acknowledge both sides of the adjustment. Reforms may have helped restore greater macroeconomic stability, but they have also imposed significant costs. Higher living expenses, energy and transport costs, weaker consumer demand and pressure on businesses have shaped the experience of adjustment. The question now is how quickly the benefits of stability can reach the productive economy and, ultimately, the household.
We are of the opinion that this is where Nigeria’s next economic challenge lies. The country needs to move from managing instability to deliberately expanding productive capacity. Growth must increasingly be connected to employment, enterprise expansion, productivity and real improvements in living standards.
The NES paper’s discussion of the “Jobs Illusion” is particularly instructive. Economic growth does not automatically guarantee sufficient employment. Nigeria must therefore pay closer attention to where investment is directed and whether public spending strengthens sectors capable of absorbing large numbers of workers.
We position agriculture, manufacturing, trade, logistics and digital services not as isolated policy compartments, but as interconnected parts of a productive economy. The NES analysis of agriculture demonstrates why this matters. Agricultural expansion can generate employment beyond the farm through processing, transportation, wholesale and retail. At an assumed 8% agricultural growth rate, the paper estimates about 1.47 million direct and downstream agrifood jobs.
But ambition must be matched by implementation. Nigeria has no shortage of economic strategies, programmes and targets. The harder task is building the institutions, infrastructure, skills and accountability systems required to deliver them consistently.
The same principle applies to the digital economy. Digital employment cannot be built on ambition alone. Reliable electricity, broadband, data infrastructure and relevant skills remain fundamental requirements. Manufacturing and agriculture face similar constraints, particularly around energy, logistics, access to finance, market access and human capital.
We therefore believe the federal government must make employment and productive capacity more explicit measures of the next phase of economic management. Inflation, reserves, exchange-rate stability and fiscal performance remain important indicators, but they cannot be the only measures of progress.
The stronger test is whether stabilisation is creating an environment in which businesses can produce more, firms can employ more workers, investors can commit capital for the long term and households can experience a meaningful improvement in economic security.
We urge the federal government to turn the gains from stabilisation into a deliberate programme for job creation and broad-based productivity. This requires more than new announcements. It requires consistent implementation, infrastructure investment, targeted support for productive sectors, stronger institutions and measurable accountability for outcomes.
Nigeria may have built a more stable economic platform. We are of the opinion that the federal government must now make that platform productive, employment-generating and broadly shared. Stability should not become the end of the reform conversation. It should become the foundation on which Nigerians can earn more, businesses can grow and prosperity can reach a wider share of society.
That is the harder work ahead.
