By Bassey Udo
Nigeria needs urgent action to mobilize long-term capital, accelerate infrastructure development, and decentralize the management of its abundant mineral resources to unlock sustainable growth, former Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Arunma Oteh, has said.
Oteh, who is also the Founder of Oxford Global Think Tank, an independent, non-partisan non-governmental organization fostering dialogue/research to strengthen leadership policies, institutions, and management, spoke at a conference it hosted on Tuesday in Abuja.
The World Bank Vice President said Nigeria’s economic potential can only be realized if the country created an environment that attracts “reasonably priced, long-term, patient capital” for both government and private sector development.
Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit, she noted, remains a major barrier to growth, citing data from China, which she said invested about 24 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in infrastructure, compared to Nigeria’s 4–5 percent.
“If we want to bridge our infrastructure and development gap, we must increase that investment to at least 12 percent.
Acknowledging some recent government initiatives in the economy, Oteh said that both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Ministry of Finance must “scale up” their efforts to raise capital that supports small businesses and large-scale public works.
“Small businesses need affordable financing, and the government needs to expand its capacity to invest in roads, highlighted the importance of diversifying Nigeria’spower, and logistics to move goods to markets,” she said.
Beyond infrastructure, Oteh said the economy can grow through its mineral wealth, pointing out that the country possesses at least 40 commercially viable minerals that remain underexploited.
“Why are we not exporting these 40 minerals in commercial quantities?” she asked. “Why are minerals still on the exclusive legislative list? We should decentralize the sector so that each state can develop and benefit from its natural resources. That is how to expand our revenue base and create jobs,” she said.
Oteh further revealed that the Oxford Global Project had chosen to produce a special report on “Reforming Africa’s Mineral Sector to Prosper Africa,” reflecting a growing global interest in the continent’s resource potential.
On leadership, Oteh said Nigeria’s transformation requires leaders with character, compassion, competence, and courage, urging the next generation of Nigerian leaders to embody these values in public service and business.
“Our grandparents taught us that leadership is about values — doing the right thing even when it’s hard. If we have that kind of leadership, the next generation will take Nigeria to greater heights,” she said.
Urging collective action from both public and private sectors: “We all need to put our hands on deck—government, business, and citizens—to invest in our nation and create opportunities for everyone.”
Also, a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said the country’s current economic hardship was the cumulative consequences of failing to remove fuel subsidy from the petrol pricing template more than a decade ago.
Sanusi, who is the current Emir of Kano, stressed that the failure to understand basic economic principles led to misplaced expectations among citizens regarding the roles of government institutions such as the CBN and the Federal Ministry of Finance.
He explained that the removal of fuel subsidy was not just an economic decision, but a necessary correction to an unsustainable policy.
“If you pay ₦65 per litre and suddenly begin to pay ₦160, of course there will be hardship,” Sanusi said. “The duty of leadership is to recognise that there will be costs and to mitigate them — not to avoid reform entirely,” he said.
The arrangement Nigeria operated for years was not a subsidy, he noted, but a “hedge,” which effectively exposed the country to unlimited financial liability.
“The government told 200 million Nigerians they would not pay more than a fixed amount per litre no matter what happened to crude oil prices or exchange rates. When oil went from $40 to $140, the federal government paid the difference. When the Naira depreciated from ₦155 to ₦300, the government paid the difference. That was not a subsidy; it was the worst form of derivative — an open-ended hedge,” Sanusi explained.
Sanusi said Nigeria eventually reached a point where it was borrowing money not just to pay subsidies, but also to service the interest on those loans, a trajectory he described as “bankruptcy by policy.”
Reflecting on the events of 2012, Sanusi recalled that he had warned that delaying fuel subsidy removal would impose far greater pain on Nigerians in the future.
“If we had removed fuel subsidy then, inflation would have risen slightly, from 11 to about 13 percent, and stabilised. Now we are facing inflation above 30 percent. This is the cost of the delay in taking action,” he said.
On the performance of the current Central Bank leadership, Sanusi commended the CBN Governor, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso for his modest successes, describing him as a competent and principled professional.
“The central bank’s role is not to create growth or employment but to provide stability and an environment conducive to growth — and I believe the current leadership has made progress in that regard,” he said.
On his part, the Minister of Finance
and the Coordinating Minister on the Economy, Wale Edun, assured Nigerians that the Federal Government’s ongoing economic reforms were being implemented with a strong focus on easing the hardships faced by ordinary citizens, particularly the poor and vulnerable.
The minister acknowledged the economic challenges confronting Nigerians, including rising food and transport costs, but emphasized that measures were already in place to cushion the effects of the reforms.
The government, he noted, has established a transparent, accountable, and robust system for providing direct payments to 15 million households across the country.
“Each individual beneficiary is identified by name and their national identity number, and payments are made digitally—either directly to their bank accounts or mobile wallets,” the minister explained.
The process, he pointed out, ensures transparency and accountability, while allowing the government to monitor disbursements in real time.
On concerns that some communities were yet to benefit from the payments, the minister said data would soon be released showing the names of beneficiaries who received the first, second, and third tranches of the disbursements.
Beyond the cash transfers, the minister disclosed that the government was also implementing a ward-based development programme designed to take resources, information, and funding directly to the 8,809 wards in Nigeria’s 774 local government areas.
“The initiative will empower economically active people at the ward level—supporting small businesses, cottage industries, and local entrepreneurs to boost production and create sustainable livelihoods,” he stated.
He further noted that the reforms were aimed at not only to stabilize the economy, but also to ensure that their benefits “reached right down to the lowest levels of society.”
On youth involvement, the minister praised Nigerian young people for embracing values such as empathy, integrity, and responsibility, describing them as essential traits for the country’s next generation of leaders.
He commended the organisers of the conference for fostering dialogue on leadership and development, reiterating that the government’s goal was to build an inclusive economy where every Nigerian would feel the positive impact of the reforms.
