FG Should Anchor Economic Growth on Productivity, Not Inflation — NESG

The Nigeria Economic Summit Group, NESG, has called on the Federal Government to anchor its economic growth objectives on productivity and not inflation. Making this call in a report on the outcome of the  Gross Domestic Product, GDP, rebasing exercise recently concluded by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS,  NESG said: “The rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP is more than a recalibration of economic statistics; it is a diagnostic scan revealing deep structural imbalances and fiscal vulnerabilities.“While the upward revision in nominal GDP expands the statistical size of the economy, the real economy – where jobs, productivity, and welfare are determined – remains constrained. Closing this gap requires a coordinated, multi-pronged policy response that addresses both immediate recovery and long-term transformation.”Stressing the need to anchor economic growth on productivity, NESG said: “With real GDP having grown only 4.4 percent since 2019, the priority is to stimulate value-added growth in sectors with high employment multipliers. This means targeted industrial policy, sector-specific competitiveness programmes, and technology adoption in agriculture and manufacturing.”


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The economic think-tank group called for a state of emergency in the industrial sector, while also urging the government to address energy reliability, logistics bottlenecks, and input costs;  deploy blended finance, targeted infrastructure tax investment incentives, to and resuscitate manufacturing, oil & gas operations, and construction.

NESG further recommended that the federal government should: “Leverage agriculture’s resilience by moving beyond subsistence. Scale mechanisation, expand irrigation, improve rural transport, and build agro-processing hubs to raise productivity, value capture, and export potential;

“Integrate the Informal Sector into the Growth Model Design informal sector–centric trade and investment policies, given its resilience and dominance in GDP composition. Pathways to formalisation should be incentivised – easing business registration, extending credit, and providing social protections to micro and small enterprises.” 

Urging the need for Fiscal and Financial Recalibration, NESG, said: “The  rebased ratios should not encourage complacency. Expand non-oil revenue through digital tax systems, broaden the tax net, and enforce compliance. Improve spending efficiency via performance-based budgeting. Deepen financial intermediation to expand credit access and mobilise capital market funding for the real economy.”