A former director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Arunma Oteh, has called for urgent action to mobilise long-term capital, accelerate infrastructure development, and decentralise the management of Nigeria’s mineral resources to unlock sustainable growth.
She made the call at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference on Tuesday, October 28 in Abuja.
Oteh, founder of the Oxford Global Think Tank, believes that Nigeria’s economic potential can only be realised if the country creates an environment that attracts “reasonably priced, long-term, patient capital” for both government and private sector development.
According to the former vice president of the World Bank, Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit remains a major barrier to growth.
Citing data from China, she said the Asian country invested about 24 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in infrastructure, compared to less than five per cent for Nigeria.
“If we want to bridge our infrastructure gap, we must increase that investment to at least 12 per cent of GDP,” Oteh urged.
She said both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the 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, power, and logistics to move goods to markets,” the former SEC boss said.
She hinted at the need to diversify Nigeria’s economy through its mineral wealth, pointing out that the country possesses at least 40 commercially viable minerals that have remained underexploited.
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“Why are we not exporting these 40 minerals in commercial quantities?” she asked. “Why are minerals still on the exclusive legislative list? We should decentralise 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.”
According to her, the Oxford Global Project had chosen to produce a special report on ‘Reforming Africa’s Mineral Sector to Prosper Africa,’ which reflects a growing global interest in the continent’s resource potential.
Oteh also believes that Nigeria’s transformation requires leaders with character, compassion, competence, and courage.
She urged 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,” Oteh said.
Calling for a collective action from both public and private sectors, she added, “We all need to put our hands on deck—government, business, and citizens—to invest in our nation and create opportunities for everyone.”
Easing hardship for 15m households
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, acknowledged the economic challenges confronting Nigerians, including rising food and transport costs, assuring that measures were already in place to cushion the effects of government reforms.
According to him, the Federal Government’s ongoing economic reforms are being implemented with a strong focus on easing the hardships faced by ordinary citizens, particularly the poor and vulnerable.
He said the government has established a transparent, accountable, and robust system for providing direct payments to 15 million households across the country.
“Each beneficiary is identified by name and their national identity number, and payments are made digitally—either directly to their bank accounts or mobile wallets,” Edun said.
The process ensures transparency and accountability while enabling the government to monitor disbursements in real time, he said.
The minister said data would soon be released on the names of beneficiaries who had received the first, second, and third tranches to address concerns that some communities had yet to benefit from the payments.
He hinted that beyond the cash transfers, the government is 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,” Edun said.
He stressed the reforms are not only to stabilise the economy but also to ensure that their benefits “reach right down to the lowest levels of society.”
Reasons Nigerians are facing economic hardship
A former CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said Nigeria’s current economic hardship is the cumulative consequence of failing to remove fuel subsidy more than a decade ago.
Sanusi, with the paraphernalia of the Emir of Kano, said the failure to understand basic economic principles had led to misplaced expectations among citizens regarding the roles of government institutions such as the CBN and the Ministry of Finance.
He maintained that the removal of fuel subsidy was not just an economic decision but a necessary correction to an unsustainable policy.
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“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,” Sanusi explained.
He stated that the arrangement the country operated for years was not a subsidy 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 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.
He 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, he recalled that he had warned that delaying subsidy removal would impose far greater pain on Nigerians in the future.
“If we had removed it then, inflation would have risen slightly, from 11 to about 13 per cent, and stabilised. Now we are facing inflation above 30 per cent. This is the cost of delay,” Sanusi said.
Commending the current CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso and describing him as a competent and principled professional, he added, “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.”
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X
