Nigeria must move beyond economic stabilisation and ensure that ongoing reforms translate into productive investment, higher productivity, jobs and improved incomes, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group has said.
The Chief Executive Officer of the NESG, Tayo Adeloju, stated this on Wednesday in Abuja ahead of the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit.
Adeloju said the country had reached a point where economic growth must produce tangible benefits for businesses, workers and households.
Adeloju said the reforms undertaken over the past three years, including subsidy removal, exchange-rate unification, fiscal restructuring and bank recapitalisation, had helped restore macroeconomic stability and improve investor confidence.
However, he said stability alone would not transform the economy.
“Stabilisation is necessary; it is not sufficient. The question before Nigeria has therefore shifted from restoring stability to converting it into transformation. The next phase must strengthen the transmission from reform to investment, investment to productivity, productivity to jobs, and jobs to shared prosperity. That is the growth that works,” he said.
The NESG boss spoke at a joint world press conference organised by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning and the NESG to announce the summit scheduled for October 26 and 27 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
The summit, themed ‘Growth that Works: Delivering Jobs, Productivity and Shared Prosperity,’ will bring together government, business leaders, labour, development partners, academia and civil society to deliberate on Nigeria’s economic challenges and possible solutions.
Adeloju said the urgency of the discussions was underscored by Nigeria’s high production costs, infrastructure gaps, low productivity and insecurity, noting that more than 90 per cent of employment remained informal.
He said, “The task is not to grow faster, but to grow differently, raising productivity and creating jobs at scale.”
According to him, the summit will focus on five interconnected areas: Work Nigeria, Produce Nigeria, Invest Nigeria, Scale Nigeria and Secure Nigeria.
He explained that Work Nigeria would address the gap between education, skills and employment, while Produce Nigeria would focus on agriculture, manufacturing and services.
Invest Nigeria would examine ways of attracting productive capital through policy predictability and investor confidence, while Scale Nigeria would seek to make states engines of production rather than leaving growth concentrated in a few cities.
Secure Nigeria would examine the economic impact of insecurity and ways to protect production corridors and restore investor confidence.
The NESG CEO said the five priorities would be anchored on productivity, human capital and resilience.
He added, “NES#32 is designed to move the conversation beyond reform implementation towards outcome delivery, asking plainly: what must change, who must act, what will it take to deliver, and how will we know it is working?”
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Budget and Economic Planning, Doris Uzoka-Anite, said the summit provided an opportunity to examine what was working in the economy, identify remaining gaps and develop practical recommendations for accelerating economic transformation.
She said the Federal Government expected the summit to move beyond discussions to actionable solutions that would improve the welfare of Nigerians.
“The ultimate objective is to move Nigeria from potential to prosperity by ensuring that economic policies and reforms translate into tangible improvements in the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians,” the minister said.
Uzoka-Anite said recommendations from the 31st summit were already reflected in some government policies, including the ongoing preparation of the National Development Plan 2026–2030 and efforts to strengthen the alignment between development planning and annual budgets.
She also cited the Nigeria Industrial Policy launched in February 2026, which prioritises agro-processing, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles and technology-driven industries.
On infrastructure, she said the ministry had signed an agreement with the International Finance Corporation to develop a pipeline of bankable public-private partnership projects in transport, energy, ICT and sanitation.
The minister said the 32nd summit would focus on productivity, human capital and resilience, supported by discussions on digital transformation, political economy, transparency and accountability, and macroeconomic stability.
She urged the media to go beyond covering the opening ceremony and official statements, saying journalists should interrogate the data, follow the substantive sessions and report what was agreed, who would implement the recommendations and how progress would be measured.
The NESG CEO similarly urged the media to hold government and businesses accountable for commitments made at the summit.
“NES#32’s success will be measured not by attendance, but by better policy, stronger businesses and improved livelihoods,” Adeloju said.
The Nigerian Economic Summit has been held for more than three decades as a platform for government and private-sector stakeholders to develop consensus on major economic policies and reforms.
By: Damilola Aina
