SUN AUG 23 2026-theGBJournal| Nigeria’s economic reform programme must be sustained but urgently recalibrated to translate recent macroeconomic gains into stronger productivity, investment, jobs and household incomes, the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has said.
The business group said reversing the reforms would be “profoundly damaging to the economy”, warning that such a move could undermine investor confidence, weaken fiscal stability and destabilise the foreign-exchange market.
CPPE was responding to the economic reform scorecard presented by the Minister of Finance, saying the data offered greater clarity on the fiscal and macroeconomic effects of the government’s policies.
It welcomed the minister’s acknowledgement that the reforms had produced both gains and significant adjustment costs, saying such transparency was important for maintaining public confidence in the reform programme.
According to CPPE, the reforms have strengthened government revenues, improved foreign-exchange market stability, lifted external reserves, expanded the trade surplus and helped restore investor confidence.
Real GDP growth also accelerated to 3.89% in the first quarter of 2026, from 3.13% a year earlier, it noted.
But CPPE cautioned that stronger macroeconomic indicators were not an end in themselves.
“Macroeconomic stability is a means, not an end,” the group said, arguing that the crucial test was whether the reforms translated into higher productivity, stronger investment, more jobs, lower poverty and improved living standards.
“That transmission remains incomplete,” it said.
Households continue to face pressure on purchasing power, while businesses are still grappling with high energy, financing, logistics and regulatory costs.
CPPE said the next phase of the reform programme should move decisively away from stabilisation towards productivity, competitiveness and household welfare.
It said Nigeria’s structural constraints — particularly electricity, logistics, insecurity, agricultural productivity, infrastructure, regulatory costs and expensive credit — were increasingly limiting the ability of businesses to expand.
The electricity sector contracted by 15.3% in the first quarter of 2026, while manufacturing grew by 3.29% and agriculture by 3.15%, highlighting the difficulty of achieving faster productive-sector growth without addressing underlying costs.
The group also called for a more targeted trade policy, saying industries and farmers with credible domestic production capacity should receive “calibrated protection against unfair import competition”, while businesses should retain access to essential inputs that cannot be adequately sourced locally.
High interest rates were another concern. CPPE said that as inflation moderates, stronger coordination between fiscal and monetary authorities should create scope for a gradual reduction in borrowing costs without undermining macroeconomic stability.
The reforms have also significantly increased the fiscal resources available to state governments through higher statutory allocations and, in some cases, stronger internally generated revenue, CPPE said.
That, it argued, should give state governments a much larger role in delivering development.
Citizens should demand measurable improvements in roads, healthcare, public transport, education, agricultural infrastructure, security, electricity and support for businesses, the group said.
“Higher revenues must produce a visible development and welfare dividend,” CPPE said, rather than simply financing increased recurrent spending and prestige projects.
CPPE’s position was that the government should not reverse the reform programme, but neither should it treat the current policy framework as fixed.
“Reversing the reforms would be profoundly damaging to the economy,” the group said.
A reversal, it warned, could weaken investor confidence, undermine fiscal stability, destabilise the foreign-exchange market and recreate distortions the reforms were intended to eliminate.
The preferred approach is therefore continuity with adjustment: maintain the reform direction while recalibrating individual policies according to evidence, implementation experience and their effects on businesses and households.
The next phase, CPPE said, should be defined by a clear shift “from stabilisation to productivity; from higher government revenues to better development outcomes; and from improving macroeconomic indicators to tangible gains in jobs, incomes and living standards.”
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