Economy/Business

Nigeria’s foreign reserves have surged to a seven-year high of $46.7 billion, a key indicator of economic recovery that has stabilized the foreign exchange market and boosted investor confidence. Experts commend this achievement but urge a strategic pivot toward attracting Foreign Direct Investment into public assets to create sustainable, non-commodity revenue, following models like Brazil and India. A critical caution is also raised against unproductive borrowing, as debt servicing remains a future burden despite the improved reserve position. This reserves milestone provides a

President Tinubu has established a high-level ministerial committee to urgently resolve the significant backlog of payments owed to approximately 2,000 federal contractors, citing grave displeasure at the systemic issue. The committee, comprising key economic and infrastructure ministers, is tasked with identifying immediate funding solutions and streamlining procurement processes to restore contractual integrity. This decisive action underscores a critical shift toward enforcing fiscal accountability and stabilizing the public procurement ecosystem to support economic activity. The initiative represents a direct intervention to rebuild contractor confidence and ensure the efficient execution

ECOWAS will eliminate air ticket taxes across West Africa starting January 2026, a landmark policy aimed at dramatically reducing airfares. This decision, based on a decade of studies, directly targets the region’s status as having the continent’s most expensive air travel, where taxes can constitute up to 70% of a ticket’s cost. By removing this significant financial barrier, the bloc seeks to stimulate demand, boost regional connectivity, and accelerate economic integration by making the movement of people, goods,

The Nigerian government is urgently pushing to formalize the largely informal solid minerals sector, citing that 85% of current activities are illegal, which stifles economic potential. Through the NEPC, it is streamlining licensing and encouraging organized clusters to transform the sector into a major revenue and industrial growth engine. The core strategy is to move from raw mineral exports to developing domestic value chains, thereby enhancing global competitiveness and ensuring transparency. This formalization is framed as the critical pathway to unlocking prosperity, sustainability, and

Lagos State is launching a strategic public-private partnership to modernize its critical trucking sector by providing affordable financing for 2,000 new CNG-powered trucks. This initiative directly tackles systemic issues of aging fleets, road safety, and port congestion by enabling fleet renewal, which will reduce accidents, breakdowns, and cargo losses. Beyond economic stimulus, the program is framed as a vital investment in urban order and safety, aiming to elevate Lagos’s compliance with international logistics standards. Success hinges on active

This initiative demonstrates a strategic public-private partnership model, where the Adamawa State Government, NEPC, and the World Bank’s SABER Programme are jointly funding and providing technical leadership to empower 150 SMEs with formal export certification. The core objective is to leverage the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by equipping local businesses with the procedural knowledge and legal credentials needed to access regional markets. A key insight is the government’s proactive role in removing financial barriers by covering certification fees,

Nigeria’s economic transformation hinges on a dual strategy: prioritizing industrial clusters for targeted infrastructure and moving beyond raw material exports through local value addition. A reliable, blended energy mix—integrating the grid with gas and solar—is identified as the critical backbone for this industrial shift, requiring urgent collaboration between government and industry. The consensus is that systematic, cluster-by-cluster development offers the most practical path to deliver power and overcome growth barriers like right-of-way delays. Ultimately, this focused approach aims to build

President Bola Tinubu has launched an integrated security and economic blueprint to transform Nigeria’s “Blue Economy” into a primary engine for national growth. The strategy aims to unlock the nation’s vast marine resources—including its coastline, fisheries, and waterways—to drive economic diversification, create sustainable jobs, and secure long-term prosperity. A key directive mandates immediate government action on a comprehensive study by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), which outlines specific opportunities in aquaculture, port modernization,

This strategic partnership between Nigeria’s procurement and standards bodies mandates compliance with national quality benchmarks in all government purchasing, directly linking public spending to industrial development. By institutionalizing the use of certified Made-in-Nigeria products, the initiative aims to elevate project outcomes while deliberately stimulating domestic industry. The core value proposition is a dual win: ensuring greater transparency and value-for-money in contracts, while actively enforcing the “Nigeria First” policy to build a more self-reliant economy. This move uniquely positions procurement