President Bola Tinubu on Monday said his administration is rewriting Nigeria’s decades-long story of economic underperformance.
Tinubu pointed to rising GDP growth, a surge in capital inflows and gains in manufacturing as evidence that his reforms are taking hold.
The president, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, made the remarks while formally declaring open the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, themed “Growth That Works: Delivering Jobs, Productivity and Shared Prosperity.”
Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Communications, Stanley Nkwocha, revealed details of the deliberations in a statement signed Monday titled ‘At 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit: President Tinubu: We’re Rewriting Nigeria’s Story of Underperformance.’
Nkwocha quoted Tinubu as saying, “We came to rewrite the story of a nation that has performed below its potential for far too long. But there is no shortcut to economic growth.
“This is why we began with a difficult reset. For us, rescuing the economy means rescuing livelihoods and transforming the fortunes of young jobseekers, farmers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs and innovators.
“We cannot harness the immense opportunities offered by our growing population without first stabilising the economy.
“We must also create the conditions for the public and private sectors to invest, expand and generate productive employment.”
The President said his administration had set reforms in motion to dismantle “the structural barriers that have prevented our abundant human and natural resources from yielding prosperity,” adding that the measures were “restoring confidence, strengthening our economic foundations and laying the groundwork for sustainable growth.”
Citing figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, Tinubu said Nigeria’s inflation-adjusted GDP grew by 3.89 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, up from 3.13 per cent in the corresponding period of 2025.
He said non-oil activities accounted for 96.08 per cent of GDP, with manufacturing growing by 3.29 per cent and the oil sector by 2.57 per cent.
“In the first quarter of 2026, our capital importation reached $10.37bn, an increase of 83.83 per cent over the corresponding period in 2025.
“This comprised both portfolio and foreign direct investment.
“We will, therefore, continue to ease regulatory burdens, strengthen transparency and policy predictability, and expand access to finance,” he said.
He added that beyond the favourable statistics, the task was “far from finished,” noting ongoing work on electricity market reforms, agricultural value chains and moving the solid minerals sector from raw extraction into domestic processing.
Also speaking at the event, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, acknowledged the gains of the reforms but urged their “urgent consolidation and stabilisation,” as well as careful management of public expectations.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, presented a draft Nigerian Economic Policy Framework, describing it as a national economic doctrine built on enterprise, open but fair markets and whole-of-government coherence, and invited the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and private-sector experts to critique it with facts and figures.
The NESG chairman, Olaniyi Yusuf, said the task ahead was to stabilise, rather than reverse, the reforms, while the BUA Group chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, commended improvements in foreign exchange access, recalling that businesses once “could have all the naira but be unable to obtain the foreign exchange needed to buy raw materials and machinery.”
Governors Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, along with cabinet members Abubakar Bagudu (Minister of Budget and Economic Planning), Jumoke Oduwole (Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment), Idi Mukhtar Maiha (Minister of Livestock Development) and Doris Uzoka-Anite (Minister of State, Budget and Economic Planning), attended the opening session.
Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy and unified the naira’s multiple exchange rates within days of taking office in May 2023.
The moves were credited with the capital-inflow and forex-access gains cited at the summit, but were also attributed to the inflation spike and cost-of-living crisis that followed.
Now in its 32nd year, the Nigerian Economic Summit is the country’s flagship public-private policy dialogue, running since 1993.