Nigeria @66: OPS demands productivity gains from reforms.

As Nigeria marks its 66th independence anniversary, Nigeria’s organised private sector (OPS) has challenged the Federal Government to turn recent macro-economic gains into measurable improvements in productivity, business competitiveness, jobs, household purchasing power, warning that stabilisation will have limited impact unless it lowers the cost of producing and living in Nigeria.

In separate statements, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) said Nigeria’s next reform phase should shift decisively from stabilisation to productivity, investment, production, exports and private-sector job creation.

Engr. Leye Kupoluyi, President of LCCI, said the reforms, including exchange-rate adjustments and monetary and fiscal measures, had produced encouraging signs of macroeconomic stabilisation, but stressed that the ultimate test was their impact on businesses and households.

Kupoluyi said businesses, particularly manufacturers and MSMEs, have continued to contend with high electricity and alternative-energy costs, expensive credit, logistics, imported raw materials, regulatory compliance and multiple taxes.

He called for a comprehensive industrial competitiveness programme focused on dedicated industrial power solutions, expanded credit guarantees and development finance, predictable trade and customs policies, local production of industrial inputs, and improved industrial and logistics infrastructure.