Dike Onwuamaeze
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has stated the federal government’s economic reforms have delivered measurable microeconomic gains that have laid the foundation for investments and economic growth.
The CPPE also said that the “next phase of reform must therefore focus much more strongly on productivity, competitiveness and household welfare.”
It stated these yesterday in its commendation to the Minister of Finance for the presentation of the economic reform scorecard whose data provided greater clarity to the fiscal and macroeconomic outcomes of the reforms and addressed important concerns in the public discourse.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, “the reforms have delivered measurable macroeconomic gains: government revenues have strengthened, the foreign-exchange market has become more stable, external reserves have improved, the trade surplus has expanded and investor confidence has recovered and the real GDP growth strengthened to 3.89 per cent in Q1 2026, from 3.13 per cent in Q1 2025.
“These are important foundations for investment and growth. But macroeconomic stability is a means, not an end. The real test is whether stability translates into higher productivity, stronger investment, more jobs, lower poverty and improved living standards.”
Yusuf, however, argued that the transmission of the gains of the reforms is still incomplete, pointing out that “the next phase must move decisively 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.”
He added that “the reforms have significantly expanded the fiscal space of state governments through higher statutory allocations and, in many cases, stronger internally generated revenues.”
According to Yusuf, these gains should “translate into a much larger development role for the states.
“Citizens should demand measurable outcomes in roads, healthcare, public transportation, education, agricultural infrastructure, security, power and enterprise support.
“Higher revenues must produce a visible development and welfare dividend, rather than simply finance higher recurrent expenditure and prestige projects.”
He noted that citizens’ purchasing power is currently under pressure, while businesses have continued to contend with high energy, financing, logistics and regulatory costs.
Yusuf, therefore, suggested that supply side should be the next reform frontier by addressing Nigeria’s major structural economic constraints such as electricity, logistics, insecurity, agricultural productivity, infrastructure, regulatory costs and the cost of capital.
He pointed out that the electricity sector contracted by 15.3 per cent in Q1 2026, while manufacturing grew by 3.29 per cent and agriculture by 3.15 per cent.
Yusuf said: “Accelerating productive-sector growth requires a decisive reduction in these structural costs.
“Trade policy should also support domestic productive capacity.
“Industries and agricultural producers with credible local capacity deserve calibrated protection against unfair import competition, while producers should retain competitive access to critical inputs not adequately available locally.”
He said that the prevailing high-interest-rate environment is challenging to businesses, and suggested that “as inflation moderates, stronger fiscal-monetary coordination should create room for a gradual easing of financing costs without jeopardising macroeconomic stability.”
The CPPE urged the government to sustain and refine the strategy of the reforms.
It cautioned that reversing the reforms would be profoundly damaging to the economy as “it would undermine investor confidence, weaken fiscal stability, destabilise the foreign-exchange market and reintroduce distortions that the reforms were designed to correct.”
It added that “such a reversal could trigger significant economic dislocations and erode the gains already achieved.
“The reform trajectory should therefore be sustained, while implementation is continuously refined in response to emerging realities.
“Reform instruments should be continuously recalibrated in response to evidence, implementation experience and their impact on businesses and households,” Yusuf said.